August 8, 2007 • 3:42 pm 0
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.
Filed under: photography
• 8:08 am 4
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”.
Filed under: culture wars, education, religion
August 6, 2007 • 11:30 am 3
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 the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Politics, culture wars, ethics, religion, sexuality
August 5, 2007 • 7:16 pm 8
Here’s a Sunday Night Quiz for you!
What is it?
(yes, some of you may already know. Don’t give it away, eh?)
Filed under: fun, photography
• 5:13 pm 1
Created using the HeroMachine Superhero Generator
Filed under: fun, photoblog, procrastinations
• 10:21 am 4
Politicians around the world are gingerly using YouTube to make policy statements, or maybe just to get their soundbites out there while avoiding having to have a press conference.
Now some Catholic seminarians have parodied the Mac vs PC ads (which I already loathed anyway) to convey the Vatican’s doctrine on Natural Family Planning vs Contraception.
They’ve got three videos up now, with more planned.
Now I disagree with the practicality of Natural Family Planning, although I applaud much of the sentiment: avoiding excessive chemical intervention with bodily functions, increased communication and intimacy between partners about avoiding unplanned pregnancies etc. Increased communication about sex before it actually happens can only be a good thing.
Unfortunately, NFP requires abstention during ovulation, which is the woman’s peak time of sexual desire, thus NFP involves a lifetime of women acquiescing to sex outside their peak period of desire and being forbidden from other forms of attaining orgasm during the peak period of sexual desire. Sounds like a recipe for frustration and resentment for me.
I notice that these videos simply don’t mention at all that NFP works (as far as it does work) only for people who are in monogamous committed relationships, which of course to the Church means marriage. So they’re simply not addressing the rather large population of adults who are not yet married but who are interested in sexual intercourse anyway. The unsaid only option for unmarried adults is abstinence. I’m not surprised that they’re not addressing that.
Anyway, it’s a very interesting exercise in propogating a set of policy soundbites. I await the replies that will surely multiply in the next few weeks with great interest. I also wonder when various lobbying groups on various social issues are going to fully embrace the viral aspect of YouTube etc for getting their soundbites more effectively out into the social consciousness. Let’s face it – I’m blogging about the videos above because they were put together with a modicum of wit about a controversial issue. Other people will do the same. If other groups do similiar things, those videos will be viraled and generate discussion. Get your issues out there, folks.
Filed under: Media, activism/charity, culture wars, netgeek, performance, religion, reproductive freedoms, technology
August 4, 2007 • 9:08 pm 5
That’s some great blaming by my friend baroquestar and her trusty digital camera. Check it out here.
Filed under: photoblog
August 1, 2007 • 4:05 pm 5
Today is the official birthday of all racehorses in the Southern Hemisphere.
Asked why it was essential to have all horses celebrating their birthday on the same day, Mr McCulloch said it was more of a racing tradition than anything else.
“So that all the two-year-olds change over to three-year-olds and all the three-year-olds change over to four-year-olds at the same time.
Because you have two-year-old races and three–year-old races so it just makes it convenient that everything changes over on the one day.”
Filed under: photography
• 3:53 pm 3
Image credit: Vulpes vulpes, originally uploaded by Robert Silverwood
I cheated a bit for this one – instead of my usual random trawling through the Wow! image pool I deliberately looked for one with a fox in it, because of the story I heard on the radio about the increasing population of foxes in Sydney and other Australian urban congomerations. They’re all over the place, following green zones and stormwater drains right onto the beaches and into the national parks.
If only they weren’t so fatal to our small native mammals (there are concerns that a breeding pair might finally have made it to Tasmania, last redoubt of the eastern quoll). Foxes are amazingly adaptable and whenever I have seen them in the wild I’ve been amazed by their beauty as well. But we don’t have the large predators to keep their numbers in check, so baiting it must be (unless we take Professor Dickman’s idea seriously – reintroduce dingoes instead, and use llamas and alpacas as watch animals to protect livestock against the foxes).
Anyway, watch out for your own pets if you’re in an area where foxes are being seen – someone will be putting down baits, guaranteed.
Filed under: photography
July 30, 2007 • 12:02 am 2
Via For Your Entertainment (via a private mailing list):
If you only watch one YouTube movie today featuring dancing country farmer’s daughters contortionists singing about potato salad, it should be this one.
Heh. Wow.
Filed under: fun, performance
