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At first it was rage as a listened to George Pell display his noted efficiency of combining arrogance and ignorance as he talked about climate change on Richard Glover’s Drive this afternoon.

Then it became pity as I realised the man has so greatly compromised his intellect to accommodate his reactionary views that he has lost any vestiges of credibility. A transcript is not available but Pell claimed that certain facts about climate change are not deniable. The one that stood out was his claim that no warming had occurred since 1998.

Really George? Have you read this? Or this? How about this? Then there is this.

Consider what can’t be denied soundly and effortlessly denied.

Then again, given George’s day job is peddling myths it is not surprising the subscribes to some in his personal politics.

…the Pope wants you!

Pope Benedict XVI introduced a fast track for Anglicans seeking to join Roman Catholicism, paving the way for conservative Anglicans frustrated by their church's blessing of same-sex unions and homosexuality in the priesthood to enter the Catholic fold.

Posted via email from shaunc’s posterous

I’ve been following Jeff Lang since 2001 and his concerts are getting now to the point where they are routinely brilliant. And that was the case with his show at The Basement on Saturday night. Showcasing his new album Chimeradour, Lang was fiery and amazing as per normal.

With Jeff Lang, it is better to turn up to a gig when he is promoting a new album without having heard the album prior. It allows you to judge the songs in contrast to his road worn material. And the songs from Chimeradour sit very comfortably beside his older material.
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Two articles in Saturday’s SMH illustrated the base cowardice and superstition that makes up the modern day politician.

First, Adele Horin in an agreeable piece on much needed abortion reform law:

Despite strong pro-choice sentiment since 1993, politicians are usually cowardly when it comes to abortion reform. They are easily cowed by vocal minority groups who are extreme and passionate.

The votes to be lost in supporting abortion reform are minimal. No politician is going to lose their seat over it. Sure the fundies will be vocal but their influence only exists because politicians are too scared to ignore them.

And then there is the rush by pollies to be holier than thou:

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It seems that Iraqis are shocked at a rise in atheism in their country.

Although their number remains insignificant and most of them hid their identity, the fact that some people are leaving Islam and becoming atheists is a troubling news in conservative Iraq.

Posted via email from shaunc’s posterous

Much to the chagrin of the neo-cons and, admittedly, to my surprise, President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after being in office for nine months. While I consider the prize an honor for the United States I can’t see how it is anything but a giant middle finger at George Bush rather than an award for anything Obama has done.

Gitmo is still open, the Homeland Security Act and all its attendant civil lawlessness is still in effect and the Obama administration is pushing for a complete renewal of the law, there are still two countries in the Middle East occupied by U.S. military forces, and Obama’s Justice Department is making legal motions to preserve the unfettered powers of the Executive branch that Bush seized. While Obama has ended the practice of torture he continues to believe that the indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists without trial is a good idea.

How then does he warrant such an award? By not being George W. Bush. Or maybe it’s a celebration of the historical reality his election imposes.  This award has gone to others that were seemingly undeserving, but I’m not going to argue that this is the case here. Certainly it’s a little baffling, but it is not altogether meritless. The repudiation of the Bush doctrine, that power has no leash, and the embrace of the idea that diplomacy is the most desired option for resolution of problems is worth acknowledging, but it might have been better to wait and see how that idea is implemented and what its results mean to the world.

Already the insane reaction from the GOP tends to blame Obama for having been given the award or, in some cases, for accepting it. The idea that the Nobel was given for increased diplomatic activity would very likely make the declining of the award an act of aggressive insensitivity, but that is the nature of the GOP beast- whatever the rest of the world wants demand the opposite because the US is bad ass. This playground mentality is also behind the whiny attacks on Obama himself for the actions of the Nobel committee. Let me be perfectly clear about this: if Obama has done nothing overt to win this award even more obvious is the fact that he has no blaim for that win. If the neo-cons want to attack the Nobel committee that’s their perogative, but it is foolish and pentulent to attack Obama.

This is the second instalment in which instead of reviewing Hanifa Deen’s The Jihad Seminar I’ll post sections of the book with some commentary.

In the first one I touched on the reason why Catch The Fire Ministries (CTF) feel persecuted as Christians. This time we look at CTF’s fear of Muslim hordes overtaking Australia and making it part of the new Great Caliphate.

So what were CTF worried about?

From page 91.
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Guy Rundle in today’s Crikey takes Christopher Hitchens to task (paywalled). And why there are some funny one liners, Rundle’s piece is a little strange in that it focuses more in Hitchens political views than his atheism.

There are some good reasons to disagree with Hichens in regards to his politics. His support for the Iraq War for example and deserved criticism for such (and a whole host of other ideas). But where I like Hitchens is his outspoken atheism that challenges the comfortable myths of the religious.

To Rundle, Hitchens is a militant atheist. A strange term as Hitchens is fomenting change via intellect and reason not violence. Rundle should rumble with some of the militant Christian or Islamic groups around the world. He would then understand that “militant” means.

There is a nasty subtext to the term “militant atheist.” It implies that the speaker is violently agitating their position. That they are somehow different from the calmer, milder atheists (not sure who they are either).

The use of this term is simply out of the wonder that atheists dare to speak out. What Rundle really wants is for the atheists to simply shut up.

The Spectrum section of today’s SMH threw up a surprise with a pro-polygmany article by Keysar Trad. Essentially, Keyer’s essentialist argument can be broken down to that men want to root around and having multiple wives solves that problem.

The trouble with Trad’s argument is that, apart from a few token gestures (including the bizarre notion that a man wanting two or more mother in laws is actually a form of praise for wife number one), it is all about what men want. The woman’s role in his ideal of a polygamous marriage is to simply help satiate the manly urges.
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