The Fundamental List 17/6/2009
This week’s program has to be one of the most egregious ones for quite a while.
St Peter the Great Retires
The hagiography given to Peter Costello is so nauseating even his most ardent admirer would dry reach. They spend about half of the program on it. They go on and on about how this “colossus of Australian politics” said Australia was a nation founded on Christian values, a statement that beggars belief to anyone acquainted with the history of this country, for starters just ten days after the planting of the Union Jack in what is now Sydney and establishing the penal colony, the male convicts set upon the female prisoners and raped them in an alcohol fuelled frenzy. The indigenous Gadigal people looked on in horror wondering what sort of barbarians had come to their country without their permission. The horrendous conditions the convicts endured and the savage treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia by the British hardly reflect all that stuff about kindness, meekness or love.
Further to our supposed Christian foundation they tell us that if Muslims want to live here “they’re very very welcome” but they need to remember who’s the boss. We’re also told that Christian values were at the heart of the Howard government – an astounding claim when you compare children overboard and Howard’s treatment of refugees or the cuts to welfare for the poor and tax cuts for the rich with Matthew 25:34-45. Some Christians John Howard and his cohorts were!
This reveals the fundamental weakness of the ACL, for them Christianity is reduced to going to church, not having sex outside of marriage, opposing abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research and hating gays and Muslims. Everything else is basically values free even though their own holy book has quite a bit to say about other things, comparatively little to say about abortion, sex outside of marriage and homosexuality and nothing to say about euthanasia, stem cell research or Muslims. A large section of Christians in Australia will find this idea of Christianity totally alien and alienating to them.
They claim they’re not partisan even though eulogising Costello and the claiming the Howard government followed Christian values are about as partisan as you can get. I doubt Wayne Swan or Bob Brown will get such a nice send off when they leaves politics.
No action.
Euthanasia in Tasmania
There’s a move on to send the Bill off to an inquiry after the budget stuff is out of the way and they reckon the numbers are there to do it.
No action.
Cairns Abortion Case
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has tried to redefine this issue as being about the procuring of an abortifacient drug rather than the abortion itself, it remains to be seen whether this will work, given that the charge did not relate to importing a drug. Bligh is resisting moves to decriminalise abortion though they worry about a private member’s Bill as mentioned last week. Apparently there are moves on to do the same thing in New South Wales as well.
They reckon that pro-choice advocates are trying to sneak changes in before Australia’s massive pro-choice majority changes its mind, though we’re not told why people here would be inclined to follow the opinion of the Americans on the issue.
No action.
Scantily Clad Women Being Used to Advertise Clothes
This is a story that has made the mainstream press this week and they quote from the editorial in the Sunday Age and the criticism they level at the ads is not unreasonable, particularly since there were no equivalent images for men’s clothes. Then they pile it on when they tell us that “clinical psychologists will tell you that the pathway to paedophilia is through so called normal pornography” (“soft porn” the other presenter interjects) and “the advertising and the clothing industry is taking us to the logical extrapolation and now we’re seeing kids sexualised in this way to promote fashion and clothing.”
Well if adult porn leads to paedophilia someone better tell Hugh Heffner. The reality is a hell of a lot of adults look at porn and very few are paedophiles, this bizarre contention echoes the idea that playing violent video games make people violent. Both assertions are just plain wrong and the evidence proves it. How then do they account for paedophilia in places where pornography is illegal? Trying to hook sexist ads into a criticism of relaxed attitudes to sex hasn’t flown before and this latest attempt comes similarly crashing down to the ground as does the claim that they are somehow doing us a favour by trying.
No action.
Charter of Rights
Submissions to the committee have now closed but petitions are still being sent (12,000 thus far – they’ve exceeded their target) and they thank people who did put in a submission, I dare say they wouldn’t thank me for mine. :) At least there’s one wheelbarrow they won’t be pushing for a while.
No action.
St Peter the Great Retires
The hagiography given to Peter Costello is so nauseating even his most ardent admirer would dry reach. They spend about half of the program on it. They go on and on about how this “colossus of Australian politics” said Australia was a nation founded on Christian values, a statement that beggars belief to anyone acquainted with the history of this country, for starters just ten days after the planting of the Union Jack in what is now Sydney and establishing the penal colony, the male convicts set upon the female prisoners and raped them in an alcohol fuelled frenzy. The indigenous Gadigal people looked on in horror wondering what sort of barbarians had come to their country without their permission. The horrendous conditions the convicts endured and the savage treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia by the British hardly reflect all that stuff about kindness, meekness or love.
Further to our supposed Christian foundation they tell us that if Muslims want to live here “they’re very very welcome” but they need to remember who’s the boss. We’re also told that Christian values were at the heart of the Howard government – an astounding claim when you compare children overboard and Howard’s treatment of refugees or the cuts to welfare for the poor and tax cuts for the rich with Matthew 25:34-45. Some Christians John Howard and his cohorts were!
This reveals the fundamental weakness of the ACL, for them Christianity is reduced to going to church, not having sex outside of marriage, opposing abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research and hating gays and Muslims. Everything else is basically values free even though their own holy book has quite a bit to say about other things, comparatively little to say about abortion, sex outside of marriage and homosexuality and nothing to say about euthanasia, stem cell research or Muslims. A large section of Christians in Australia will find this idea of Christianity totally alien and alienating to them.
They claim they’re not partisan even though eulogising Costello and the claiming the Howard government followed Christian values are about as partisan as you can get. I doubt Wayne Swan or Bob Brown will get such a nice send off when they leaves politics.
No action.
Euthanasia in Tasmania
There’s a move on to send the Bill off to an inquiry after the budget stuff is out of the way and they reckon the numbers are there to do it.
No action.
Cairns Abortion Case
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has tried to redefine this issue as being about the procuring of an abortifacient drug rather than the abortion itself, it remains to be seen whether this will work, given that the charge did not relate to importing a drug. Bligh is resisting moves to decriminalise abortion though they worry about a private member’s Bill as mentioned last week. Apparently there are moves on to do the same thing in New South Wales as well.
They reckon that pro-choice advocates are trying to sneak changes in before Australia’s massive pro-choice majority changes its mind, though we’re not told why people here would be inclined to follow the opinion of the Americans on the issue.
No action.
Scantily Clad Women Being Used to Advertise Clothes
This is a story that has made the mainstream press this week and they quote from the editorial in the Sunday Age and the criticism they level at the ads is not unreasonable, particularly since there were no equivalent images for men’s clothes. Then they pile it on when they tell us that “clinical psychologists will tell you that the pathway to paedophilia is through so called normal pornography” (“soft porn” the other presenter interjects) and “the advertising and the clothing industry is taking us to the logical extrapolation and now we’re seeing kids sexualised in this way to promote fashion and clothing.”
Well if adult porn leads to paedophilia someone better tell Hugh Heffner. The reality is a hell of a lot of adults look at porn and very few are paedophiles, this bizarre contention echoes the idea that playing violent video games make people violent. Both assertions are just plain wrong and the evidence proves it. How then do they account for paedophilia in places where pornography is illegal? Trying to hook sexist ads into a criticism of relaxed attitudes to sex hasn’t flown before and this latest attempt comes similarly crashing down to the ground as does the claim that they are somehow doing us a favour by trying.
No action.
Charter of Rights
Submissions to the committee have now closed but petitions are still being sent (12,000 thus far – they’ve exceeded their target) and they thank people who did put in a submission, I dare say they wouldn’t thank me for mine. :) At least there’s one wheelbarrow they won’t be pushing for a while.
No action.