The Fundamental List 15/7/2009
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Showing posts with label Fundamental List. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fundamental List. Show all posts
The Fundamental List 8/7/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
This week they have a stand-in host in the ACT Director Ben Williams. They rehash what he does and he tries to be more factual and less hyperbolic than the regular co-hosts.
Human Rights forum in Parliament House
Three days of consultations were held in Parliament House last week. They rehash what a Charter of Rights is and why they don’t like it. They mention Victoria and how it’s supposedly effecting their exemptions. This stuff has been discussed so many times before I won’t go into it further.
Jim Wallace’s talking points were that he was sceptical about whether a Charter would actually protect rights (mentioning that Victoria’s and the ACT’s Charter doesn’t give blastocytes a right to life is as much as he could muster on this point) and that it would be an activist’s Charter. He mentioned that some in the UK call their Charter a criminal’s Charter, his fear is that activist groups here like people who think that religion should not be able to impose its moral codes on others would be able to challenge unjust laws that are currently on the books.
No action.
Greens’ Marriage Equality Bill
A Galaxy poll last week found that 60% of Australians now support equal marriage (a fact that naturally they don’t mention) up from just 46% 5years ago. To give a bit of traction to the poll Senator Hanson-Young from South Australia as put up a private member’s Bill in the Senate to bring in marriage equality in Australia, similar to one that was put up a couple of years ago by then Senator Kerry Nettle (also from the Greens).
After a brief summary of the Bill they try to justify their position opposing it by a slippery slope argument asking why not allow polygamy after all people in polygamous relations might love each other too. The difference is of course there is a power imbalance in polygamous relationships that reinforces patriarchy and as numerous cases in the US show they are often very deleterious for both the women and the children in these relationships.
The will be a Senate enquiry about the Bill and they encourage people to make submissions where they start taking them.
Euthanasia Enquiry in Tasmania
There’s a Parliamentary enquiry in to euthanasia in Tasmania as a result of a Greens Bill seeking to legalise it. We get a snide comment from one of the regular presenters that the Greens seem to be less about trees and more about “undermining marriage and family” and “important issues of life” – not exactly a comment consistent with their claim to be partisan.
The deadline for submissions is 31st July and they want people to go to their website where they will have a campaign running on the issue. Non Tasmanians can also put in a submission.
A New Book on Girls’ Sexualisation
A new book called “Getting Real – Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls” is coming out in September on the sexualisation girls edited by a Director of the Christian Right lobby group the Women’s Forum of Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist.
After extolling Melinda they urge people to buy the book (cash for comment perhaps?). What they don’t mention is that the publisher of the book, Spinifex Press is run by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein, the latter being one of the best-known and longest-established 'pro-life feminists' in Australia. Interestingly they often publish books by lesbians 'across fiction, non-fiction and poetry’; something that I’m sure would horrify most of the listeners to the podcast.
Human Rights forum in Parliament House
Three days of consultations were held in Parliament House last week. They rehash what a Charter of Rights is and why they don’t like it. They mention Victoria and how it’s supposedly effecting their exemptions. This stuff has been discussed so many times before I won’t go into it further.
Jim Wallace’s talking points were that he was sceptical about whether a Charter would actually protect rights (mentioning that Victoria’s and the ACT’s Charter doesn’t give blastocytes a right to life is as much as he could muster on this point) and that it would be an activist’s Charter. He mentioned that some in the UK call their Charter a criminal’s Charter, his fear is that activist groups here like people who think that religion should not be able to impose its moral codes on others would be able to challenge unjust laws that are currently on the books.
No action.
Greens’ Marriage Equality Bill
A Galaxy poll last week found that 60% of Australians now support equal marriage (a fact that naturally they don’t mention) up from just 46% 5years ago. To give a bit of traction to the poll Senator Hanson-Young from South Australia as put up a private member’s Bill in the Senate to bring in marriage equality in Australia, similar to one that was put up a couple of years ago by then Senator Kerry Nettle (also from the Greens).
After a brief summary of the Bill they try to justify their position opposing it by a slippery slope argument asking why not allow polygamy after all people in polygamous relations might love each other too. The difference is of course there is a power imbalance in polygamous relationships that reinforces patriarchy and as numerous cases in the US show they are often very deleterious for both the women and the children in these relationships.
The will be a Senate enquiry about the Bill and they encourage people to make submissions where they start taking them.
Euthanasia Enquiry in Tasmania
There’s a Parliamentary enquiry in to euthanasia in Tasmania as a result of a Greens Bill seeking to legalise it. We get a snide comment from one of the regular presenters that the Greens seem to be less about trees and more about “undermining marriage and family” and “important issues of life” – not exactly a comment consistent with their claim to be partisan.
The deadline for submissions is 31st July and they want people to go to their website where they will have a campaign running on the issue. Non Tasmanians can also put in a submission.
A New Book on Girls’ Sexualisation
A new book called “Getting Real – Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls” is coming out in September on the sexualisation girls edited by a Director of the Christian Right lobby group the Women’s Forum of Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist.
After extolling Melinda they urge people to buy the book (cash for comment perhaps?). What they don’t mention is that the publisher of the book, Spinifex Press is run by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein, the latter being one of the best-known and longest-established 'pro-life feminists' in Australia. Interestingly they often publish books by lesbians 'across fiction, non-fiction and poetry’; something that I’m sure would horrify most of the listeners to the podcast.
The Fundamental List 2/6/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
This week’s show partially continues in the vein of trying to show they care about things besides abortion, stem cell research and gay rights.
Asylum Seekers Being Charged for Their Stay on
Like me and I dare say most other Australians the ACL had no idea that our government was charging people $120 a day to stay in detention camps while they are being processed and had been doing so for 17 years when Keating was Prime Minister. Like me and I dare say most other Australians they were shocked to hear about it especially since it can leave people with debts of up to $45,000 – debts most people simply couldn’t afford to pay. 97% of all debts were not paid and it was costing fortune to get the remaining 3%.
They quote Petro Georgiou when he said “we don’t change drug deals, paedophiles or the most sadistic of murderers for their time in gaol and make them pay for that out of their own pocket, so why are we imposing this draconian regime on asylum seekers?” They point out how and unjustified and punitive this is.
They try to walk a fine line by keeping their Liberal supporters on side by saying we do need strong boarder protection but we need to be compassionate to people in detention.
Then we get the Right Wing bullshit that presumes that if you are seeking asylum you have to be poor, if you arrive on a plane in
No action.
Fallout from the Auscar Affair
Like they say, pretty much all of the time Parliament sat last week was devoted to this stupid issue and serious debates on climate change were postponed until the spring session because Malcolm Turnbull didn’t check his sources. They try to say everyone looked bad at the end of it, again showing themselves to be true blue Libs since there was universal agreement in the press, even amongst those commentators who are ardently pro-Liberal that Turnbull stuffed up big time.
No action.
New Homelessness Enquiry
The Federal Government commissioned a White Paper on homelessness in
No action.
British Judge Calls for Action to Stop Family Breakdowns
A Judge in England has called for a national commission to tackle family breakdowns and a stigma to be attached to the break-up of relationships and they tie this in with claims by a British sociologist they had at their annual conference last year who said basically strong families equals happy, wealthy communities and weak ones equal poor, unhappy communities. This of course is an extremely Right Wing analysis because it then shifts the emphasis from where should be – on what action the state can take to fix the problem and privatises social ills in an extremely simplistic manner (‘get your marriage sorted out and all will be well’). Then we get the saccharine closing comment that ‘of course we’re not judging people whose relationships have broken down’…perish the thought!
No action.
Equality Bill in
I knew it couldn’t last, they had to revert to form sooner of later. A new Bill in
No action.
They close by telling us they’ve got 14,000 signatures against a Charter of Rights, it seems to be petering out.
The Fundamental List 24/6/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
We get a glimpse of the ideology behind the ACL, an ideology that has nothing to with the bible and everything to do with a Right-Wing agenda masquerading as religion.
Youth in Crisis – Department of Community Services
They comment on recent reports about youth homelessness and youth mental health problems and the high percentage of the homeless among the young.
What they don’t mention of course is the very high percentage of homeless youth that are GLBTI and the specific policies that are needed to tackle homelessness in this group after all we wouldn’t want to legitimise their ‘lifestyle’ would we?
They say that this all boils down to divorce rates – if everyone got married and stayed married we’d solve these problems thereby individualising collective problems and exculpating the government from having to act. This of course is in line with the Hobsian ‘you’re all on your own’ philosophy that many Fundamentalists espouse.
Also we’re told that even though neither of the presenters is a psychologist that they know the source of mental health problems is a sexualised society and substance abuse, once again we’re told that they’re not psychologists but too many kids are missing out on self esteem that apparently can only be built up by two parents who married to each other. After all it’s not like they need any evidence for these claims we just know don’t we?
It seems incongruous that they should suddenly be blaming the bureaucracy and looking to the state government to do something given that they think it’s all a matter for individual families.
No action.
Changes to Help Sex Slaves
Changes to the law will now mean that the approximately 1000 women who are trafficked as sex slaves to Australia each year will not be sent back to their countries if they don’t want to; an excellent thing. They use this to argue that brothels should not be legal (failing to mention that the vast majority of sex workers are Australians) and talk about the Swedish model.
No action.
Update on the Charter of Rights
The petition they have running against a Charter has garnered 13,500 signatures and they want it to be the biggest petition ever or at least the third biggest (last year a petition is support of equal marriage got 30,000 signatures so they’ve got a way to go yet).
Youth in Crisis – Department of Community Services
They comment on recent reports about youth homelessness and youth mental health problems and the high percentage of the homeless among the young.
What they don’t mention of course is the very high percentage of homeless youth that are GLBTI and the specific policies that are needed to tackle homelessness in this group after all we wouldn’t want to legitimise their ‘lifestyle’ would we?
They say that this all boils down to divorce rates – if everyone got married and stayed married we’d solve these problems thereby individualising collective problems and exculpating the government from having to act. This of course is in line with the Hobsian ‘you’re all on your own’ philosophy that many Fundamentalists espouse.
Also we’re told that even though neither of the presenters is a psychologist that they know the source of mental health problems is a sexualised society and substance abuse, once again we’re told that they’re not psychologists but too many kids are missing out on self esteem that apparently can only be built up by two parents who married to each other. After all it’s not like they need any evidence for these claims we just know don’t we?
It seems incongruous that they should suddenly be blaming the bureaucracy and looking to the state government to do something given that they think it’s all a matter for individual families.
No action.
Changes to Help Sex Slaves
Changes to the law will now mean that the approximately 1000 women who are trafficked as sex slaves to Australia each year will not be sent back to their countries if they don’t want to; an excellent thing. They use this to argue that brothels should not be legal (failing to mention that the vast majority of sex workers are Australians) and talk about the Swedish model.
No action.
Update on the Charter of Rights
The petition they have running against a Charter has garnered 13,500 signatures and they want it to be the biggest petition ever or at least the third biggest (last year a petition is support of equal marriage got 30,000 signatures so they’ve got a way to go yet).
The Fundamental List 17/6/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
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.
The Fundamental List 10/6/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
The dying days of the campaign against a charter of rights aid money and support for homophobia in schools feature in this week’s broadcast.
Charter of Rights
Submissions are due to the Charter of Rights inquiry on Monday, Queensland’s Law Society has yet to make up its mind whether it’s for it or against it. This is being touted as a break from the Law Council of Australia’s position (saying we haven’t made up our minds can hardly be called a break) and we get the usual talking points and they want signatures for their petition and submissions.
Victorian Review of Exemptions from Anti-Discrimination Legislation
We get a rehashing the points from last week’s show. They claim that removing the exemptions would go against the right of parents who want a religious education for their children to get that religious education. This is used as a hook to say if this is happening in Victoria, think what would happen if we get a Charter nationally. One of the proposals in the review is that they keep their exemptions but loose public funding – not a bad idea I’d say, after all, if you don’t want to employ people you don’t like, why would you want their money either?
Whilst there undoubtedly are parents whose primary purpose in sending their girls to Presbyterian Ladies College for example is to give them a religious education, there are many more who are sending them their to give them access to networks amongst the future rich and powerful of society, thereby thinking that they will advance their own kids. They also have the perception that because a school has polo fields and old sandstone buildings, it must be better than their local public school down the road when often this isn’t so.
It’s also impossible to ignore the money factor here, whilst there are impoverished religious schools (mostly small Catholic ones) many religious schools are incredibly well resourced and pitched at elites. This is increasingly the case even in many Catholic schools which traditionally were pitched at children from low socio-economic backgrounds.
In claiming the freedom to discriminate as part of their faith they are hijacking the phrase ‘freedom of religion’ and turning it away from simply meaning the freedom to worship according to one’s own beliefs and changing it into meaning the freedom to claim certain privileges in society because of one’s own beliefs – like tax exemptions and exemptions from anti discrimination legislation. The implication being that if they loose these privileges, they somehow won’t be able to worship according to their own beliefs.
Submissions to the review are due by 10th July and they urge listeners in Victoria to put in a submission
Aid Money Being Used for Sex Selection against Baby Girls
The former leader of the National Party in the Senate Senator Ron Boswell has been asking questions about how much money is being spent and in what way on abortion. He was told the funds would be allocated in block grants to organisations working in several countries and it would be impossible to know how much money was being used specifically to fund abortions. Neither the Senator nor the ACL are particularly happy not knowing the exact Dollar figure and claim this means there’s no transparency in the system and how do we know that the money is not being spent to fund sex selection by abortion?
I would venture to say that organisations like Oxfam who receive this sort of funding are not in the habit of providing it for those purposes and there are guidelines that ensure funding isn’t going to any old guy who claims he’s going to put a well into some village. Moreover those guidelines would state that money is not to be used on things that are illegal here or in the country concerned. Sex selection by abortion is illegal in Australia so we’re hardly going to fund a clinic that helps women abort female foetuses so they can have a son. The thing is of course that the bureaucrats funding projects know what the projects being funded by these block quotes are so it’s not as if money could skimmed off by corrupt Australian officials. This is simply being used as another thing to rally the troops and perpetuate the impression that all is not well with the world.
The story of a young woman who is being charged with procuring an abortion in Queensland also gets a predictably slanted run and they fear a private member’s Bill decriminalising abortion being put forward as MPs are almost always given a conscience vote on similar issues. In practice this means such a Bill would pass because our politicians, like the public generally are overwhelmingly pro-choice, fact the ACL has acknowledged in the past and which they implicitly acknowledge again in fearing a private member’s Bill.
No action
Anti-Homophobic Bullying: a Lifestyle Promotion Measure
Q: When is bullying a kid a good thing?
A: When the kid being bullied is gay.
At least this seems to be what the fundies are saying. They’re worked up about campaigns in schools in the UK that target homophobic bullying. Similar measures are being put in place in schools in Tasmania and Victoria. A core part of this is showing kids that their gay classmates are normal human beings who deserve to be treated decently. To them this ‘promotes a homosexual lifestyle’ and they don’t want that and they link this in with “attacks on the ecology of marriage and the family and the best interests of the child” whatever that means. Surely it’s in the best interests of children not to be bullied for whatever reason!
Well what do they want? An anti bullying campaign that says ‘gays are going to hell but you shouldn’t beat little Johnny up for being, leave that to god’? Newsflash: that isn’t going to work. A core part of combating bigotry is showing the bigots the people they hate are human beings just like them; this is a concept that the ACL seems to have a problem with judging from what they are saying.
We know that where anti-homophobic bullying policies (and anti-racist ones as well) are put in place in schools and really enforced they have a tremendous effect in changing kids’ attitudes to other kids who are different to them. Contrary to what the ACL thinks, generalised anti-bullying messages do not get through when the bullying is specifically targeted and being told gay people are human beings is as likely to make a straight kid gay as being told black people are human beings will make a white kid black.
Johann Hari has a brilliant write up on the effects of homophobic bullying in schools and the effects of campaigns targeting it here and here.
No Action – just a rant.
Charter of Rights
Submissions are due to the Charter of Rights inquiry on Monday, Queensland’s Law Society has yet to make up its mind whether it’s for it or against it. This is being touted as a break from the Law Council of Australia’s position (saying we haven’t made up our minds can hardly be called a break) and we get the usual talking points and they want signatures for their petition and submissions.
Victorian Review of Exemptions from Anti-Discrimination Legislation
We get a rehashing the points from last week’s show. They claim that removing the exemptions would go against the right of parents who want a religious education for their children to get that religious education. This is used as a hook to say if this is happening in Victoria, think what would happen if we get a Charter nationally. One of the proposals in the review is that they keep their exemptions but loose public funding – not a bad idea I’d say, after all, if you don’t want to employ people you don’t like, why would you want their money either?
Whilst there undoubtedly are parents whose primary purpose in sending their girls to Presbyterian Ladies College for example is to give them a religious education, there are many more who are sending them their to give them access to networks amongst the future rich and powerful of society, thereby thinking that they will advance their own kids. They also have the perception that because a school has polo fields and old sandstone buildings, it must be better than their local public school down the road when often this isn’t so.
It’s also impossible to ignore the money factor here, whilst there are impoverished religious schools (mostly small Catholic ones) many religious schools are incredibly well resourced and pitched at elites. This is increasingly the case even in many Catholic schools which traditionally were pitched at children from low socio-economic backgrounds.
In claiming the freedom to discriminate as part of their faith they are hijacking the phrase ‘freedom of religion’ and turning it away from simply meaning the freedom to worship according to one’s own beliefs and changing it into meaning the freedom to claim certain privileges in society because of one’s own beliefs – like tax exemptions and exemptions from anti discrimination legislation. The implication being that if they loose these privileges, they somehow won’t be able to worship according to their own beliefs.
Submissions to the review are due by 10th July and they urge listeners in Victoria to put in a submission
Aid Money Being Used for Sex Selection against Baby Girls
The former leader of the National Party in the Senate Senator Ron Boswell has been asking questions about how much money is being spent and in what way on abortion. He was told the funds would be allocated in block grants to organisations working in several countries and it would be impossible to know how much money was being used specifically to fund abortions. Neither the Senator nor the ACL are particularly happy not knowing the exact Dollar figure and claim this means there’s no transparency in the system and how do we know that the money is not being spent to fund sex selection by abortion?
I would venture to say that organisations like Oxfam who receive this sort of funding are not in the habit of providing it for those purposes and there are guidelines that ensure funding isn’t going to any old guy who claims he’s going to put a well into some village. Moreover those guidelines would state that money is not to be used on things that are illegal here or in the country concerned. Sex selection by abortion is illegal in Australia so we’re hardly going to fund a clinic that helps women abort female foetuses so they can have a son. The thing is of course that the bureaucrats funding projects know what the projects being funded by these block quotes are so it’s not as if money could skimmed off by corrupt Australian officials. This is simply being used as another thing to rally the troops and perpetuate the impression that all is not well with the world.
The story of a young woman who is being charged with procuring an abortion in Queensland also gets a predictably slanted run and they fear a private member’s Bill decriminalising abortion being put forward as MPs are almost always given a conscience vote on similar issues. In practice this means such a Bill would pass because our politicians, like the public generally are overwhelmingly pro-choice, fact the ACL has acknowledged in the past and which they implicitly acknowledge again in fearing a private member’s Bill.
No action
Anti-Homophobic Bullying: a Lifestyle Promotion Measure
Q: When is bullying a kid a good thing?
A: When the kid being bullied is gay.
At least this seems to be what the fundies are saying. They’re worked up about campaigns in schools in the UK that target homophobic bullying. Similar measures are being put in place in schools in Tasmania and Victoria. A core part of this is showing kids that their gay classmates are normal human beings who deserve to be treated decently. To them this ‘promotes a homosexual lifestyle’ and they don’t want that and they link this in with “attacks on the ecology of marriage and the family and the best interests of the child” whatever that means. Surely it’s in the best interests of children not to be bullied for whatever reason!
Well what do they want? An anti bullying campaign that says ‘gays are going to hell but you shouldn’t beat little Johnny up for being, leave that to god’? Newsflash: that isn’t going to work. A core part of combating bigotry is showing the bigots the people they hate are human beings just like them; this is a concept that the ACL seems to have a problem with judging from what they are saying.
We know that where anti-homophobic bullying policies (and anti-racist ones as well) are put in place in schools and really enforced they have a tremendous effect in changing kids’ attitudes to other kids who are different to them. Contrary to what the ACL thinks, generalised anti-bullying messages do not get through when the bullying is specifically targeted and being told gay people are human beings is as likely to make a straight kid gay as being told black people are human beings will make a white kid black.
Johann Hari has a brilliant write up on the effects of homophobic bullying in schools and the effects of campaigns targeting it here and here.
No Action – just a rant.
The Fundamental List 3/6/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
A new voice on the show this week, namely the new ACL ACT Director Nick Jensen who has just finished his Bachelor of Theology & his BA (majoring in religious studies, politics and philosophy) and is a chaplain at a Christian school. I must say his voice sounds very young. He started a year ago at the ACL and now he’s the director of it in the ACT, somehow I think this is more a reflection of the size of the organisation rather than any sort of Napoleonic qualities on his part. We get the oft put platitudes about how this organisation with its reactionary agenda is supposedly non-partisan, although it’s pretty obvious why they feel the need to keep saying this. The talking points don’t vary much from last week (something of a motif with this bunch).
Euthanasia
They basically rehash last week’s points particularly the research (they don’t say where it’s from) claiming one thousand Dutch people are killed every year without their consent under that country’s euthanasia legislation, nor do they expand on what they mean by this, under what circumstances this happens is something we’re left to wonder. They conclude that no safeguards are possible to make the Tasmanian legislation workable.
No Action
Legalised Brothels in Tasmania
A few years ago Tasmania had a review of its prostitution legislation that legalised prostitution but not brothels, the follow up review required by the law has now suggested that brothels be legalised but it doesn’t make it one of its recommendations. Tasmanian politicians are now in the process of deciding whether brothels should be legalised or not, although no legislation has been put forward as yet. Unsurprisingly they don’t want to see this happen and they claim that where brothels have been legalised there have been massive numbers of new ones open up and the illegal trade goes up.
Funny that, Western Australia legalised brothels last year and I’m not aware of any new ones opening up, nor did the ban on them at the time mean that there were no brothels when the Liberals were last in power in WA, what I can remember at the time were quite a number of streetwalkers, a practice that is dangerous for the women involved and not especially nice for everyone else to have to put up with, particularly since they were concentrated in the CBD and nightlife parts of the city and most of the people there were not punters.
The new boy hasn’t quite learned his lines yet and says it is going to happen in every society on some level and the response is to call for the introduction of the Swedish model whereby the man paying for sex is criminalised, not the sex worker. Swedish stats show significantly a reduced number of brothels and the number of women being trafficked to Sweden has fallen. Which all sounds good, but...whilst there are many things I like about Sweden and social democracy is certainly preferable to the much more laissez-faire system of liberal democracy in the US however social democracy has a number of intrinsic flaws and one of them is its adherence to statism. Operating in a nationalist construct blinkers you to the wider ramifications of actions which might be good for your country.
In this case, the critical question is what impact have the (relatively) new laws had on the sex trade in Sweden’s neighbours? Has the number of women being trafficked to nearby countries with different legislation gone up? Has the safety of sex workers in other nearby countries improved or not? (Assuming there haven’t been changes in their laws.) Most importantly has the number of Swedes visiting places like Tallinn in Estonia (nicknamed the Bangkok of Europe and country with one of highest rates of HIV infection in Europe) for sex tourism gone up or not? In other words have the Swedish laws simply displaced the sex trade, especially its more unsavoury aspects to nearby countries? When the stats on Sweden are trotted out by proponents of its legislation we never hear this question being answered so there is plenty of scope to be sceptical about the Swedish approach.
When prostitution was legalised in Western Australia last year, the Swedish model was considered and rejected, despite its architect flying out from Stockholm to meet with then Attorney-General, it would interesting to know why that was.
No action.
Global Financial Crisis
Some stats on the socio-economic impacts of the global financial crisis get a brief mention and some sympathy, but no ideas are put forward on how to deal with these problems, I guess God will provide if they keep faith in capitalism.
Are government departments letting kids down?
They express some concerns about how children are being portrayed in advertising, specifically about sexualised ads of children that were allowed by the NSW Office of the Children’s’ Guardian.
They also complain that laws that are supposed to stop the sale of porn (extreme porn as they put it) in milk bars and service stations are not being enforced even though these magazines are not displayed in plain sight.
No action.
Once again they plug their Charter of Rights campaign briefly before signing off.
Euthanasia
They basically rehash last week’s points particularly the research (they don’t say where it’s from) claiming one thousand Dutch people are killed every year without their consent under that country’s euthanasia legislation, nor do they expand on what they mean by this, under what circumstances this happens is something we’re left to wonder. They conclude that no safeguards are possible to make the Tasmanian legislation workable.
No Action
Legalised Brothels in Tasmania
A few years ago Tasmania had a review of its prostitution legislation that legalised prostitution but not brothels, the follow up review required by the law has now suggested that brothels be legalised but it doesn’t make it one of its recommendations. Tasmanian politicians are now in the process of deciding whether brothels should be legalised or not, although no legislation has been put forward as yet. Unsurprisingly they don’t want to see this happen and they claim that where brothels have been legalised there have been massive numbers of new ones open up and the illegal trade goes up.
Funny that, Western Australia legalised brothels last year and I’m not aware of any new ones opening up, nor did the ban on them at the time mean that there were no brothels when the Liberals were last in power in WA, what I can remember at the time were quite a number of streetwalkers, a practice that is dangerous for the women involved and not especially nice for everyone else to have to put up with, particularly since they were concentrated in the CBD and nightlife parts of the city and most of the people there were not punters.
The new boy hasn’t quite learned his lines yet and says it is going to happen in every society on some level and the response is to call for the introduction of the Swedish model whereby the man paying for sex is criminalised, not the sex worker. Swedish stats show significantly a reduced number of brothels and the number of women being trafficked to Sweden has fallen. Which all sounds good, but...whilst there are many things I like about Sweden and social democracy is certainly preferable to the much more laissez-faire system of liberal democracy in the US however social democracy has a number of intrinsic flaws and one of them is its adherence to statism. Operating in a nationalist construct blinkers you to the wider ramifications of actions which might be good for your country.
In this case, the critical question is what impact have the (relatively) new laws had on the sex trade in Sweden’s neighbours? Has the number of women being trafficked to nearby countries with different legislation gone up? Has the safety of sex workers in other nearby countries improved or not? (Assuming there haven’t been changes in their laws.) Most importantly has the number of Swedes visiting places like Tallinn in Estonia (nicknamed the Bangkok of Europe and country with one of highest rates of HIV infection in Europe) for sex tourism gone up or not? In other words have the Swedish laws simply displaced the sex trade, especially its more unsavoury aspects to nearby countries? When the stats on Sweden are trotted out by proponents of its legislation we never hear this question being answered so there is plenty of scope to be sceptical about the Swedish approach.
When prostitution was legalised in Western Australia last year, the Swedish model was considered and rejected, despite its architect flying out from Stockholm to meet with then Attorney-General, it would interesting to know why that was.
No action.
Global Financial Crisis
Some stats on the socio-economic impacts of the global financial crisis get a brief mention and some sympathy, but no ideas are put forward on how to deal with these problems, I guess God will provide if they keep faith in capitalism.
Are government departments letting kids down?
They express some concerns about how children are being portrayed in advertising, specifically about sexualised ads of children that were allowed by the NSW Office of the Children’s’ Guardian.
They also complain that laws that are supposed to stop the sale of porn (extreme porn as they put it) in milk bars and service stations are not being enforced even though these magazines are not displayed in plain sight.
No action.
Once again they plug their Charter of Rights campaign briefly before signing off.
The Fundamental List 27/5/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
I’ve noticed that very little action is requested in these spots, it’s mostly just slanted ramblings about things they don’t like. This week is mostly about a Charter of Rights with two filler items.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia legislation is being introduced in Tasmania by the Greens that will be debated by August and both major parties will have a conscience vote. We’re told the Greens just won’t give up on this issue, especially after Bob Brown moved to reintroduce euthanasia in the Northern Territory.
They then go through why they think the legislation should fail – life is scared, it’s a slippery slope and they claim a thousand Dutch people are killed without their consent under Holland’s euthanasia legislation. We’re told most people in the NT who availed themselves of euthanasia when it was briefly legal there were depressed and lonely and didn’t have a terminal illness. Turning to the legislation in Tasmania, they say the proposed safeguards won’t work (although we’re not told why). Apparently previous parliamentary inquiries in other jurisdictions internationally did not support euthanasia. Then we’re told that with greater emphasis on palliative care should mean that it’s extremely rare for someone to be in intolerable pain (sadly this just isn’t true) and they don’t want a situation where people feel themselves a burden and the take ‘soft’ option.
No action.
Charter of Rights
A book was launched in Sydney on Monday by the Menzies Research Centre (a think tank aligned with the Liberal Party) called “Don’t Leave Us With The Bill – The Case Against An Australian Bill of Rights.” One of the contributors, former High Court Justice Ian Callinan says a Bill of Rights risks politicising the court system and corrupting the judiciary. He also says judges are “not immune to the narcotic of power” and that they’re not in any better position to make moral and social decisions than anyone else. Again we’re told it’s “one of the most crucial issues facing Christians”. At the launch, Jim Wallace (ACL head and another contributor) says it would be legislating selfishness as it doesn’t balance individual rights with community rights (even though the document hasn’t even been written yet!)
Then we have the most egregious part of the broadcast, they actually say they wanted to put a tobacco billboard next to a school in Canada and that was validated by the courts – as I highlighted last week this is a total lie! It seems lying isn’t a sin if you’re doing it for Jesus.
Action: Same as last week. 3700 people have signed they want 10,000.
America turning pro-life?
A recent poll says a majority of Americans describe themselves as pro-life and they say this is a backlash against Obama’s moves even though the pro-life stance is mostly a hardening of the position on the Republican side of politics. They hope Australians change too, they say 67% of Australians were against late term abortions in polls in 2005 even though polling in the same year found 56% supported a woman’s right to choose, a figure which increased to 65% in 2006, with only 22% opposed. They still think it’s a winnable debate and the tide will turn.
No action.
Euthanasia
Euthanasia legislation is being introduced in Tasmania by the Greens that will be debated by August and both major parties will have a conscience vote. We’re told the Greens just won’t give up on this issue, especially after Bob Brown moved to reintroduce euthanasia in the Northern Territory.
They then go through why they think the legislation should fail – life is scared, it’s a slippery slope and they claim a thousand Dutch people are killed without their consent under Holland’s euthanasia legislation. We’re told most people in the NT who availed themselves of euthanasia when it was briefly legal there were depressed and lonely and didn’t have a terminal illness. Turning to the legislation in Tasmania, they say the proposed safeguards won’t work (although we’re not told why). Apparently previous parliamentary inquiries in other jurisdictions internationally did not support euthanasia. Then we’re told that with greater emphasis on palliative care should mean that it’s extremely rare for someone to be in intolerable pain (sadly this just isn’t true) and they don’t want a situation where people feel themselves a burden and the take ‘soft’ option.
No action.
Charter of Rights
A book was launched in Sydney on Monday by the Menzies Research Centre (a think tank aligned with the Liberal Party) called “Don’t Leave Us With The Bill – The Case Against An Australian Bill of Rights.” One of the contributors, former High Court Justice Ian Callinan says a Bill of Rights risks politicising the court system and corrupting the judiciary. He also says judges are “not immune to the narcotic of power” and that they’re not in any better position to make moral and social decisions than anyone else. Again we’re told it’s “one of the most crucial issues facing Christians”. At the launch, Jim Wallace (ACL head and another contributor) says it would be legislating selfishness as it doesn’t balance individual rights with community rights (even though the document hasn’t even been written yet!)
Then we have the most egregious part of the broadcast, they actually say they wanted to put a tobacco billboard next to a school in Canada and that was validated by the courts – as I highlighted last week this is a total lie! It seems lying isn’t a sin if you’re doing it for Jesus.
Action: Same as last week. 3700 people have signed they want 10,000.
America turning pro-life?
A recent poll says a majority of Americans describe themselves as pro-life and they say this is a backlash against Obama’s moves even though the pro-life stance is mostly a hardening of the position on the Republican side of politics. They hope Australians change too, they say 67% of Australians were against late term abortions in polls in 2005 even though polling in the same year found 56% supported a woman’s right to choose, a figure which increased to 65% in 2006, with only 22% opposed. They still think it’s a winnable debate and the tide will turn.
No action.
The Fundamental List 20/5/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
This week was a bit of a rerun of last week, most of the stuff is basically more of the same.
Charter of Rights – AGAIN
They really are going on about this. This week they go into more detail about their campaign around a Charter of Rights seeking mobilise the minions (or as they put it tens of thousands of Christians) into spamming MPs and the committee. They rather modestly is the Charter is one of “the biggest threats currently facing the Christian faith in Australia?” and continue their measured and balanced commentary telling us “at stake is freedom as we’ve known it”. One can only hope that they put such hyperbolae to the government and the people so they can exit stage right with the rest of us laughing.
They go through traditional arguments for their stance too much power to judges, alters political system blah, blah, blah; we get a bit more about their campaign site and apparently there are 1100 signatures on the online petition that’s been open a few days. They go through the talking points about what happened in Canada, (more on that in a moment) and tell us in the space of less than a minute that the Charter would be simultaneously “meaningless” and “powerful”. Nothing like a well reasoned argument!
They urge people to go to website, sign a petition, make a submission and show a propaganda video made especially by Jim Wallace in their church before closing by rehashing some of the stuff from last week from Victoria.
Spurious talking points
I want to deal with the talking points (in terms of their focus, one is major, one is minor) that they keep bringing up about a Charter.
Firstly they claim the Canadian courts have allowed cigarette advertising in schools. The general rule is if something sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is and in this case, it definitely is and really is nothing more than a scare campaign. It sounds as if a cigarette ad was put up near a school, challenged in court and found to be ok.
In fact the case (RJR MacDonald Inc. v Canada (Attorney General)) was about whether a total ban on advertising was necessary to prevent people taking up smoking, by a majority of one (i.e. it could just as easily gone the other way) the court said it was not and said commercial advertising was covered under the free speech provisions of the Canadian Charter. It is still lawful to restrict what forms this commercial speech may take – billboards are specifically prohibited and it is illegal to advertise around products and services targeted at young people and the tobacco industry itself specifically said they weren’t about to advertise around schools following the decision.
There’s a very simple lesson to learn from this, if we get a Charter, it should only apply to natural persons (i.e. flesh and blood human beings) and not legal persons – a term that includes both humans and corporations. There’s a contemporaneous write up on the case here and there's more on the current Canadian laws here. Also there’s nothing stopping us from saying that free speech doesn’t cover commercial speech in any Charter we might come up with.
The minor point they make – I suspect however it forms the crux of their opposition to the Charter even though they downplay it, is that equal marriage in Canada came about via the courts, specifically the cases of Egale Canada Inc. v Canada (Attorney General) and Halpern v Canada (Attorney General).
The key question here is would these guys be in favour of it if was introduced via legislation rather than by the courts? No. They’re opposed to it full stop. They reckon it’s less likely to come via parliaments than by the courts and that’s why they’re so opposed to courts having more power, the evidence for this proposition seems to be waning however, Sweden, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire (the Bill hasn’t been signed by the Governor yet but it looks likely that he will sign it) have all got equal marriage this year through their parliaments, not through their courts. The debate is not which is the right way to get something; after all do they oppose the desegregation of the schools in the US? That was done by the courts. Slavery was outlawed in the British Empire by a court, do they oppose that? No the debate is about whether equal marriage itself is a good or a bad thing, so let’s have the debate.
NRL
Another attack on Catherine Lumby. We’re told since the 60s we’ve had a laissez faire approach to sex and since she doesn’t see anything wrong with consenting adults having sex (yes the nerve of the woman, how dare she!) she has no idea why moral values are important. Again they link her scholarly book surveying attitudes of Australians to porn (The Porn Report) to the porn industry even though it was funded by the Federal Government. Again they call for her to be sacked and Jim Wallace has apparently said so on Sydney radio.
Then things get almost cartoonish as they turn into living stereotypes of Christian fundamentalists. We get ramblings about the supposed breakdown in morality and the “pornification” of our culture. We need breaks put on porn we’re told; men must not be complicit in the “pornification” of our culture. Then my personal favourite for the week – “men have a responsibility to protect women” – gold, sheer gold. We’re urged to “protect our daughters and young women” and told that Lumby’s not helping – another “won’t someone please think of the children” moment.
The Budget
There’s a little bit of commentary about the budget. They say (again) that the development funding good but we need more – I guess they have to try to sound positive about SOMETHING.
Equal marriage in New York
Jim Wallace went on Channel 7’s Sunrise this week debating two “homosexual activists” about equal marriage and we get a précis of their talking points. According to Jimmy, two human beings of the same sex expressing their love for and commitment to each other are:
• Selfish (now that really is out of left field, how can SHARING you life with someone be selfish?!);
• Making normal a minority ‘lifestyle’, because of course if you’re in a minority, you’re not normal. (The ABS figure of 1.2% is quoted as being the LGBTI population of Australia. The ABS doesn’t ask who you fancy on the census form, they ask if you’re in a relationship and even they acknowledge the figure given is an underestimate. The figure is meaningless and does even measure what they say it does.);
• Bad because children do best in a traditional family, not that they would ever quote research to show kids raised by same-sex couples do worse than kids who are raised by opposite-sex couples because there isn’t any, and;
• Weakening marriage although we’re not told why.
We’re told Christians need to be active on this issue lest Australia go down the path of New York where the Bill of equal marriage has passed the House and in that state’s Senate.
Sometimes there’s nothing like a farce to get your day off to a good start!
Charter of Rights – AGAIN
They really are going on about this. This week they go into more detail about their campaign around a Charter of Rights seeking mobilise the minions (or as they put it tens of thousands of Christians) into spamming MPs and the committee. They rather modestly is the Charter is one of “the biggest threats currently facing the Christian faith in Australia?” and continue their measured and balanced commentary telling us “at stake is freedom as we’ve known it”. One can only hope that they put such hyperbolae to the government and the people so they can exit stage right with the rest of us laughing.
They go through traditional arguments for their stance too much power to judges, alters political system blah, blah, blah; we get a bit more about their campaign site and apparently there are 1100 signatures on the online petition that’s been open a few days. They go through the talking points about what happened in Canada, (more on that in a moment) and tell us in the space of less than a minute that the Charter would be simultaneously “meaningless” and “powerful”. Nothing like a well reasoned argument!
They urge people to go to website, sign a petition, make a submission and show a propaganda video made especially by Jim Wallace in their church before closing by rehashing some of the stuff from last week from Victoria.
Spurious talking points
I want to deal with the talking points (in terms of their focus, one is major, one is minor) that they keep bringing up about a Charter.
Firstly they claim the Canadian courts have allowed cigarette advertising in schools. The general rule is if something sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is and in this case, it definitely is and really is nothing more than a scare campaign. It sounds as if a cigarette ad was put up near a school, challenged in court and found to be ok.
In fact the case (RJR MacDonald Inc. v Canada (Attorney General)) was about whether a total ban on advertising was necessary to prevent people taking up smoking, by a majority of one (i.e. it could just as easily gone the other way) the court said it was not and said commercial advertising was covered under the free speech provisions of the Canadian Charter. It is still lawful to restrict what forms this commercial speech may take – billboards are specifically prohibited and it is illegal to advertise around products and services targeted at young people and the tobacco industry itself specifically said they weren’t about to advertise around schools following the decision.
There’s a very simple lesson to learn from this, if we get a Charter, it should only apply to natural persons (i.e. flesh and blood human beings) and not legal persons – a term that includes both humans and corporations. There’s a contemporaneous write up on the case here and there's more on the current Canadian laws here. Also there’s nothing stopping us from saying that free speech doesn’t cover commercial speech in any Charter we might come up with.
The minor point they make – I suspect however it forms the crux of their opposition to the Charter even though they downplay it, is that equal marriage in Canada came about via the courts, specifically the cases of Egale Canada Inc. v Canada (Attorney General) and Halpern v Canada (Attorney General).
The key question here is would these guys be in favour of it if was introduced via legislation rather than by the courts? No. They’re opposed to it full stop. They reckon it’s less likely to come via parliaments than by the courts and that’s why they’re so opposed to courts having more power, the evidence for this proposition seems to be waning however, Sweden, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire (the Bill hasn’t been signed by the Governor yet but it looks likely that he will sign it) have all got equal marriage this year through their parliaments, not through their courts. The debate is not which is the right way to get something; after all do they oppose the desegregation of the schools in the US? That was done by the courts. Slavery was outlawed in the British Empire by a court, do they oppose that? No the debate is about whether equal marriage itself is a good or a bad thing, so let’s have the debate.
NRL
Another attack on Catherine Lumby. We’re told since the 60s we’ve had a laissez faire approach to sex and since she doesn’t see anything wrong with consenting adults having sex (yes the nerve of the woman, how dare she!) she has no idea why moral values are important. Again they link her scholarly book surveying attitudes of Australians to porn (The Porn Report) to the porn industry even though it was funded by the Federal Government. Again they call for her to be sacked and Jim Wallace has apparently said so on Sydney radio.
Then things get almost cartoonish as they turn into living stereotypes of Christian fundamentalists. We get ramblings about the supposed breakdown in morality and the “pornification” of our culture. We need breaks put on porn we’re told; men must not be complicit in the “pornification” of our culture. Then my personal favourite for the week – “men have a responsibility to protect women” – gold, sheer gold. We’re urged to “protect our daughters and young women” and told that Lumby’s not helping – another “won’t someone please think of the children” moment.
The Budget
There’s a little bit of commentary about the budget. They say (again) that the development funding good but we need more – I guess they have to try to sound positive about SOMETHING.
Equal marriage in New York
Jim Wallace went on Channel 7’s Sunrise this week debating two “homosexual activists” about equal marriage and we get a précis of their talking points. According to Jimmy, two human beings of the same sex expressing their love for and commitment to each other are:
• Selfish (now that really is out of left field, how can SHARING you life with someone be selfish?!);
• Making normal a minority ‘lifestyle’, because of course if you’re in a minority, you’re not normal. (The ABS figure of 1.2% is quoted as being the LGBTI population of Australia. The ABS doesn’t ask who you fancy on the census form, they ask if you’re in a relationship and even they acknowledge the figure given is an underestimate. The figure is meaningless and does even measure what they say it does.);
• Bad because children do best in a traditional family, not that they would ever quote research to show kids raised by same-sex couples do worse than kids who are raised by opposite-sex couples because there isn’t any, and;
• Weakening marriage although we’re not told why.
We’re told Christians need to be active on this issue lest Australia go down the path of New York where the Bill of equal marriage has passed the House and in that state’s Senate.
Sometimes there’s nothing like a farce to get your day off to a good start!
The Fundamental List 13/5/2009
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
A busy week for me, but a quiet week for the god squad it would seem. Only one thing is on the Christian Right’s agenda this week and if you guessed it was to do with a Charter of Rights – you’d be right.
DYI Gender testing
A new product on the market allows for gender testing from eight weeks, they’re worried about gender selection occurring as a result of this. This would be fair enough if it wasn’t already illegal to select the sex of your baby by aborting a foetus just because it was of the ‘wrong’ (i.e. female) gender. Their solution to this is to call for more restrictive laws around abortion even though they don’t specifically say what these should be and how you’d prove someone was having an abortion because they wanted a boy and were having a girl. Their ‘solution’ does nothing to deal with what one would hope would be a very isolated problem and only serves their anti-choice authoritarian agenda; no call for action is made though.
Culture of group sex in rugby league
They’re concerned about the culture in NRL and how rugby league players treat women. Whilst there certainly are problems in rugby league’s culture, it would be unfair to tar all NRL players with the same brush, after all there a few devout Christians who are players and surely not all players are sexists.
Nevertheless, rather than offer their ideas as to how this culture can be changed they instead have a blast at one of the NRL's advisors in the area, Catherine Lumby who is an Associate Professor in Media and Communications at Sydney University. The reason for this tirade? Well apart from claiming she has links to the porn industry (probably because she wrote a book with Kath Albury and Alan McKee called “The Porn Report” looking at pornography – the models, the production companies and the users) she has said she doesn’t have a problem with group sex if the participants are all consenting adults (adults having consensual sex with other adults? The horror! One wonders if they’ll call for a ban!). They deliberately try to confuse consensual and non-consensual sex saying “what does consensual mean anyway?” I would have thought it was the difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In any sort of of selective reading of a person’s opinions, it’s best to let them speak for themselves. Clearly she draws a very firm line between consensual and non-consensual sex and there is nuance in what she says about consensual sex but we don’t that getting the way of a spray do we?
They conclude by churlishly saying they hope the NRL sacks Catherine Lumby as an advisor but again there’s no call for action.
Autonomy for the ACT
A couple of days ago, Jon Stanhope used a ceremonial sitting of the ACT’s assembly to call for greater autonomy from the Commonwealth Parliament down the road and across the bridge.
As the most educated place in Australia, it’s also one of, probably the most progressive. It was the only state or territory to deliver a majority ‘yes’ vote (and a rather substantial one at that) on the republic referendum in 1999. It also lead the charge for civil unions only to be thwarted by the Commonwealth – twice under the previous government and once under the current one before it was forced to water down its legislation somewhat last year.
Given this you wouldn’t expect the ACL to be fans of the ACT and they’re not. They’re concerned that the ACT is calling for more autonomy. They think the Commonwealth’s power to override ACT legislation is a check/balance because the ACT has a unicameral parliament – so does Queensland but they’re not calling for the Commonwealth to have a plenary power over Queensland, or any other state.
If the ACT had more autonomy civil unions couldn’t have been overridden (memo to Jim Wallace: it’s called democracy when Parliaments pass laws the people the want). Somewhat bizarrely they claim civil unions contravened the federal Marriage Act because of the ceremony involved – a rather novel legal interpretation. They’re worried about a progressive ACT Assembly modelling progressive stuff for the rest of the country like same-sex couples adopting (even though WA had legislation to this effect long before the ACT). Nothing like the ‘radical social engineering’ coming out of Canberra to get other Australians to support crazy ideas like equality – you can practically hear the Maude Flanders’ “won’t someone please think of the children!” scream.
If the Commonwealth was interfering in more mundane matters that’d be different but it’s perfectly ok with them to override a policy that the government took to the electorate twice and which won majority government for the first time in the ACT’s history, but to hell with their mandate they say. Why? Because it suits their quixotic view of how things should be. They don’t think anything will come of it and aren’t calling on people to do anything – rather a motif this week!
Charter of Rights
Christian schools are having their exemptions under the discriminations acts reviewed in Victoria. (Hurrah, about time too I say!) They go on about how great these exemptions are and say the review was set up within weeks of the Victorian Charter of Rights coming in therefore Charters of Rights are baaaaaaaad. Ergo we don’t need a Charter of Rights federally and they go through (yet again) why they don’t like Charters of Rights canvassing all the usual talking points about things in Canada.
A new campaign has been set up called ‘charter rights no wrongs’ on their camapign website where supporters can sign a petition to the federal government. They also want people to make more submissions to the human rights enquiry.
The Budget
They go through the budget leaks and are pleased that stay-at-home mums will continue to get the baby bonus when paid maternity leave is introduced. They want our overseas aid funding maintained and ultimately increased to meet the Millennium Development Goals – at least there’s one thing we can agree on.
DYI Gender testing
A new product on the market allows for gender testing from eight weeks, they’re worried about gender selection occurring as a result of this. This would be fair enough if it wasn’t already illegal to select the sex of your baby by aborting a foetus just because it was of the ‘wrong’ (i.e. female) gender. Their solution to this is to call for more restrictive laws around abortion even though they don’t specifically say what these should be and how you’d prove someone was having an abortion because they wanted a boy and were having a girl. Their ‘solution’ does nothing to deal with what one would hope would be a very isolated problem and only serves their anti-choice authoritarian agenda; no call for action is made though.
Culture of group sex in rugby league
They’re concerned about the culture in NRL and how rugby league players treat women. Whilst there certainly are problems in rugby league’s culture, it would be unfair to tar all NRL players with the same brush, after all there a few devout Christians who are players and surely not all players are sexists.
Nevertheless, rather than offer their ideas as to how this culture can be changed they instead have a blast at one of the NRL's advisors in the area, Catherine Lumby who is an Associate Professor in Media and Communications at Sydney University. The reason for this tirade? Well apart from claiming she has links to the porn industry (probably because she wrote a book with Kath Albury and Alan McKee called “The Porn Report” looking at pornography – the models, the production companies and the users) she has said she doesn’t have a problem with group sex if the participants are all consenting adults (adults having consensual sex with other adults? The horror! One wonders if they’ll call for a ban!). They deliberately try to confuse consensual and non-consensual sex saying “what does consensual mean anyway?” I would have thought it was the difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In any sort of of selective reading of a person’s opinions, it’s best to let them speak for themselves. Clearly she draws a very firm line between consensual and non-consensual sex and there is nuance in what she says about consensual sex but we don’t that getting the way of a spray do we?
They conclude by churlishly saying they hope the NRL sacks Catherine Lumby as an advisor but again there’s no call for action.
Autonomy for the ACT
A couple of days ago, Jon Stanhope used a ceremonial sitting of the ACT’s assembly to call for greater autonomy from the Commonwealth Parliament down the road and across the bridge.
As the most educated place in Australia, it’s also one of, probably the most progressive. It was the only state or territory to deliver a majority ‘yes’ vote (and a rather substantial one at that) on the republic referendum in 1999. It also lead the charge for civil unions only to be thwarted by the Commonwealth – twice under the previous government and once under the current one before it was forced to water down its legislation somewhat last year.
Given this you wouldn’t expect the ACL to be fans of the ACT and they’re not. They’re concerned that the ACT is calling for more autonomy. They think the Commonwealth’s power to override ACT legislation is a check/balance because the ACT has a unicameral parliament – so does Queensland but they’re not calling for the Commonwealth to have a plenary power over Queensland, or any other state.
If the ACT had more autonomy civil unions couldn’t have been overridden (memo to Jim Wallace: it’s called democracy when Parliaments pass laws the people the want). Somewhat bizarrely they claim civil unions contravened the federal Marriage Act because of the ceremony involved – a rather novel legal interpretation. They’re worried about a progressive ACT Assembly modelling progressive stuff for the rest of the country like same-sex couples adopting (even though WA had legislation to this effect long before the ACT). Nothing like the ‘radical social engineering’ coming out of Canberra to get other Australians to support crazy ideas like equality – you can practically hear the Maude Flanders’ “won’t someone please think of the children!” scream.
If the Commonwealth was interfering in more mundane matters that’d be different but it’s perfectly ok with them to override a policy that the government took to the electorate twice and which won majority government for the first time in the ACT’s history, but to hell with their mandate they say. Why? Because it suits their quixotic view of how things should be. They don’t think anything will come of it and aren’t calling on people to do anything – rather a motif this week!
Charter of Rights
Christian schools are having their exemptions under the discriminations acts reviewed in Victoria. (Hurrah, about time too I say!) They go on about how great these exemptions are and say the review was set up within weeks of the Victorian Charter of Rights coming in therefore Charters of Rights are baaaaaaaad. Ergo we don’t need a Charter of Rights federally and they go through (yet again) why they don’t like Charters of Rights canvassing all the usual talking points about things in Canada.
A new campaign has been set up called ‘charter rights no wrongs’ on their camapign website where supporters can sign a petition to the federal government. They also want people to make more submissions to the human rights enquiry.
The Budget
They go through the budget leaks and are pleased that stay-at-home mums will continue to get the baby bonus when paid maternity leave is introduced. They want our overseas aid funding maintained and ultimately increased to meet the Millennium Development Goals – at least there’s one thing we can agree on.
The Fundamental List
Category:
Fundamental List
,
Religion
By Blogsy
I’ve decided to start a regular series based on the Australian Christian Lobby’s weekly podcast to let people know what the Christian Right is up to.
This week:
There’s a new book that is part of the Learn To Include (LTI) series called ‘Where did I really come from?’ apparently from the NSW Attorney General’s Department (even though the Attorney General has said he’s not connected with the book ) dealing with different family relationships and age appropriate sex ed and they’re not happy Jan! Chairman Rupert’s media outlets are displaying their customary considered, even handed reporting. They seem to just be having a spray that it’s been published but there’s not much they can do about it.
The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth have put out a report saying that current systems of dealing with child abuse are not adequate. They’re using this to say we should stop allowing marriages to break up and focus on the child, saying we tolerate anything and everything blah, blah, blah and we should extend the Northern Territory intervention to the white community. No real action, they’re just using it to push their own agenda that report’s authors would not subscribe to.
Alcohol advertising will possibly no longer be self-regulated. The proposal is for mandatory vetting of alcohol ads to make sure they’re not promoting binge drinking. They want Senator Fielding’s proposal to ban advertising during cricket matches to be taken up and for there to be health warnings on alcohol as there are on tobacco products but aren’t urging people to do anything
National “Thanksgiving Day” is on 30th May. No it's not the American holiday, this was dreamed up six years ago by the Australian Prayer Network and Brian Pickering. The Governor General and Prime Minister are on board, as they were under the last government. We’re all supposed go to our local fundy bookstore (Koorong Books) or their website and buy cards (nice little fundraiser that) to thank politicians and public servants for the job they do. This year they’re particularly urging people to thank Communications Minister Steven Conroy for his attempts to censor the internet at ISP level which have been massively unpopular. You can find out more about this day where we're supposed to acknowledge "the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our nation" here.
Yet again they’re bashing the human rights consultation and the proposed Charter of Rights as an attack on their religious freedom and urging people to write short submissions to the consultation as they say “this issue is far too important to let go so please do act on it.”
This week:
There’s a new book that is part of the Learn To Include (LTI) series called ‘Where did I really come from?’ apparently from the NSW Attorney General’s Department (even though the Attorney General has said he’s not connected with the book ) dealing with different family relationships and age appropriate sex ed and they’re not happy Jan! Chairman Rupert’s media outlets are displaying their customary considered, even handed reporting. They seem to just be having a spray that it’s been published but there’s not much they can do about it.
The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth have put out a report saying that current systems of dealing with child abuse are not adequate. They’re using this to say we should stop allowing marriages to break up and focus on the child, saying we tolerate anything and everything blah, blah, blah and we should extend the Northern Territory intervention to the white community. No real action, they’re just using it to push their own agenda that report’s authors would not subscribe to.
Alcohol advertising will possibly no longer be self-regulated. The proposal is for mandatory vetting of alcohol ads to make sure they’re not promoting binge drinking. They want Senator Fielding’s proposal to ban advertising during cricket matches to be taken up and for there to be health warnings on alcohol as there are on tobacco products but aren’t urging people to do anything
National “Thanksgiving Day” is on 30th May. No it's not the American holiday, this was dreamed up six years ago by the Australian Prayer Network and Brian Pickering. The Governor General and Prime Minister are on board, as they were under the last government. We’re all supposed go to our local fundy bookstore (Koorong Books) or their website and buy cards (nice little fundraiser that) to thank politicians and public servants for the job they do. This year they’re particularly urging people to thank Communications Minister Steven Conroy for his attempts to censor the internet at ISP level which have been massively unpopular. You can find out more about this day where we're supposed to acknowledge "the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our nation" here.
Yet again they’re bashing the human rights consultation and the proposed Charter of Rights as an attack on their religious freedom and urging people to write short submissions to the consultation as they say “this issue is far too important to let go so please do act on it.”
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