Our HAT Facebook group is now up and running, with 20 members so far!
So, I wish to have a Sydney Femmobolsho Gathering towards the end of this month, if we can get enough people willing to down margaritas somewhere with a sunny courtyard. The excuse is my birthday. Ooh, this means I can play with the Facebook Event thingy, doesn’t it?
Another image from the Wow! Flickr image pool: this is just a really appealing image
Image credit: originally uploaded by goshiva
For contrast, here’s two totally natural shots of a dune in Namibia at dawn and dunes in Libya at sunset.
Ross Gittins today in the SMH, regarding the bewilderment of the Howard government’s economic-rationalism ideologues as to why we sheeple aren’t more happy about the wonderful economy: It’s not only the economy, stupid
Gittins points out that growth in real incomes is not enough to satisfy when people no longer compare their circumstances only with themselves 10 years ago but also with the people around them, and all can see that the disparity in wealth between the social classes is growing. The evidence in the electoral polls shows that a growing proportion of voters prefer predictable job security to a booming share price, and are made more anxious that their children will be able to afford home-ownership than grateful over their own capital gains in the skyrocketing property market.
Economic-rationalism has never sufficiently factored in people’s attachment to intangible goods. Gittins’ final line nails it:
Another explanation for our base ingratitude, of course, could be our dawning realisation that there’s more to life than economics. No, that couldn’t possibly be right.
The great tradition of religious tolerance in Catholic parochial schools in New South Wales is under fire. Many thousands of children of all faiths have been educated in a system often chosen by parents due to a complex perception of superior education outcomes rather than as a response to the promulgation of faith within the schools, and many non-Catholics and non-Christians remember their time at a Catholic school very fondly. But from now on such experiences may be fewer and further between than in previous generations.
Cardinal George Pell and NSW Bishops have sent out a pastoral letter which bemoans the trend for more non-Catholics to attend Catholic schools and for more Catholics to send their children to public schools, and announces methods which the hierarchy wishes to implement to reverse these trends – a four way selection process giving preference first to children from the school’s local parish, then to Catholics from other parishes, then to other Christians and finally children from other religions. They also plan to move into preschool education in order to “foster the spiritual development” of younger children, which would at least be a welcome addition to the chronically short supply of pre-school places. The Cardinal and Bishops also want recruitment of staff to favour more practising Catholics and to actively encourage the school population to participate in Catholic events outside the school.
Here’s the doozy – acknowledgement that they actually considered barring non-Catholics altogether:
The Church will not ban non-Catholic students from enrolment – it says it considered, but rejected, plans for a formal “downsizing to accommodate only those who are committed to the faith”.
I’ve posted before on my experience with invisible disability, and linked to amandaw on the “But you don’t look sick!” phenomenon. And for further background, everyone should read the “Open Letter to Those Without CFS/Fibro” at Not Done Living.
Now Annaham at Hamblog has come out with the Invisible Illness Bingo card, v. 1.0. “But you don’t look sick!” features, as does “Lucky! You get to stay in bed all day!” and “But I went through hard times too, and I managed just fine. Let’s talk about what a great person I am.”
Anyone who has experienced chronic illness is likely to recognise a few of these. (Perhaps you’d like to punch a wall or two.) If you haven’t had the pleasure of a debilitating but invisible illness, you might still recognise a few of these as having flitted through your head (or even emerged from your mouth) in the past when confronted with the frustrating reality of chronic illness in others. Perhaps when they’re all down on a card like this, we can all recognise these comments for what they are, and for what they do to people on the sharp end.
Images generated by The Simpsonizer.
I couldn’t get the software to play nice and generate a background picture that I could put the whole family into (unlike Lauredhel’s effort), but here we are as icons at least.
Y’know, it’s one thing to express doubts about how long the fairly bland Kevin Rudd can continue to successfully present himself to the electorate as an exciting breath of fresh air.
It’s another thing entirely to call the man “a load of crap”.
That will not play well Peter Dutton, it really won’t. Thanks for showing us all, yet again, that the Howard Cabinet could all do with some time in charm school.
crossposted
An attack has been made on the Australian media from the front page of Life Decisions International (LDI), whose domain name is the far more accurate fightpp.org (PP being the USA’s Planned Parenthood, the family planning organisation that offers comprehensive sex education and pregnancy services including abortion for those who choose it). The LDI are upset that somebody noticed an association between them and serial ministerial bungler Kevin Andrews.
Australian Media Shows No Regard For The Truth
It is not unusual for pro-abortion activists to use their allies in the media to attack pro-life leaders and lawmakers. But some in the Australian media are taking the practice to a whole new level. LDI has issued a response to an attack on an Australian lawmaker.
When we go to the response, the target of our media’s attack is made more explicit (the weird hyphenation of some words is in the original):
Australia Media Shows No Regard For Truth In Attack On Pro-Life Minister
8.6.2007WASHINGTON, D.C.–It’s nothing new. Pro-abortion activ-ists work with their allies in the media to attack pro-life leaders and lawmakers. The most recent vociferous attack is against the Honorable Kevin Andrews, a Member of the Australian Parliament and Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
“It is obvious that some pro-abortion zealot was in the United States or was searching the Internet in an effort to find something that could be used to attack Mr. Andrews,” said Douglas R. Scott, president of Life Decisions Interna-tional (LDI). “They eventually discovered that Mr. Andrews and his wife, Margaret, are members of our Board of Advi-sors. To pro-abortion activists, one may as well be a mem-ber of the Ku Klux Klan.”
read more…
Here’s a Sunday Night Quiz for you!
What is it?
(yes, some of you may already know. Don’t give it away, eh?)
