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Post by angra on Apr 6, 2013 10:54:21 GMT 10
"Anti-Catholic witch hunt" "such crimes are being exploited as the opportunity not to help the victims but destroy the Catholic church... Much media coverage would have you think the church is filled with predators and is still hiding them." Well yes. Check Broken Rites. The Church IS still filled with predators and hiding them. Check the Newcastle Herald, who have been campaigning for justice for victims in the Hunter for years. Abusers were offloaded to NZ, The Solomons, PNG and Asia. It's only a few hundred thousand, and those were all long ago, so it's obviously just a witch hunt. (Now who exactly coined that phrase?). About one in twenty (or forty - depends on the source) of Catholic priests are kiddy fiddlers. There are over 400,000 priests world-wide, so do the maths. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_countrySeems to me some one who deliberately downplays the seriousness of this and blames the victims is every bit as bad as the offenders. But that's just my opinion. Just replace 'victims' with 'Jews', and ''accused' with 'Nazis' and watch the despicable Blot squeal like a stuck pig. And he's a self-confessed non-believer!
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Post by jack on Apr 6, 2013 11:22:49 GMT 10
" every bit as bad as the offenders" Or conceivably worse. It's not unreasonable to question how much his stridency in defending poor widdle Catholicism is owed to his toadying after the Mad Abbott. " Blessed Rupert of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great" The Oz - at least, the online version - has today published 2,000+ words of the Blessed Rupert's IPA evangel, under the headline "Markets radiate morality." www.theaustralian.com.au/media/markets-radiate-morality/story-e6frg996-1226613525209Aye, verily, the Vision Splendid. The thrust of it appears to be a reification of Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand' as virtually a moral entity, almost a divine instrument - hey, perhaps that of the Almighty Himself (I mean God, not Rupert). Between mangling Adam Smith and channelling Ayn Rand, Saint Rupert took a poke at "ill-conceived ... government attempts to regulate the press in Australia and Britain." His next Evangel will undoubtedly explain the benefits to us all of hacking a dead kid's phone, corruption of law enforcement agencies, etc., as a by-product of his corporation's aggressive market dominance.
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Post by Skiman on Apr 6, 2013 11:26:32 GMT 10
The post a few minutes ago trying to draw a connection between the News Limited hacking cases and the Fairfax entry into an ALP database (using details supplied by an insider, no less) is fairly extraordinary.
The parallel to be drawn is the invasion of privacy by News Limited (on the one hand) and the ALP (on the other) - not Fairfax who acted as real journalists would. Unsurprising then that Andrew chooses not to recognise that; it's not as if he'd ever be in danger of being confused for that category of writer.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 11:56:43 GMT 10
I'm putting this here because bolt quoted it, thus making it automatically worth investigation for being bullshit. UPDATE
Judith Sloan:
The government is expecting to save a mere $350 million over the next four years by breaking Julia Gillard’s solemn commitment, given just two months ago, that “the government reaffirms that it will never remove tax-free superannuation payments for the over-60s”. Another broken promise, perhaps?
Well. Bullshit? I'm not sure I can say that with certainty. But it is very careful phrasing. Here's what gillard actually said, in response to a question from warren truss, asking her to rule out any changes whatsoever to super: As the Leader of the National Party would well know, Labor is the party that brought compulsory superannuation to this country. It was fought every step of the way with a fear campaign in which people were told the Australian economy would be destroyed ... I would also remind the Leader of the National Party that if he were paying any attention to the economic debate in this country, he would know we addressed questions of superannuation, including superannuation withdrawals, when we released the tax review in May 2010. I refer him to the media release which accompanied that report and said the government reaffirms that it will never remove tax-free superannuation payments for the over-60s. I refer him to that statement and I would ask him to please say to the Leader of the Opposition: 'Don't hurt 3.6 million Australians. Don't hurt the lowest income Australians in our country. Do not hurt these men and women.' So I'm not sure that's quite the "solemn commitment" that sloan wants you to think it was. It was a reference to a media release made by the previous prime minister, in response to an open-ended question. I think the right response would have been to ask the coalition to rule out ever changing one jot or tittle themselves. I personally don't think they should have ever promised no tax increase. I still don't see why somebody on a steady income shouldn't pay taxes to support the services that they will increasingly rely on as they age. What's so magic about the age of 60? Do people over 60 who're still WORKING get to dodge paying income tax? Hell no - they'd continue paying their taxes to help fund the services of people who tick the "retired" box. Bolt quotes somebody who's a bit upset about having to pay taxes on her after-60 income. Apparently she's got health problems, which will cost her money. Presumably that means she'll be costing the rest of us money too - whenever she has an interaction with the public health system (or much of the private one, for that matter). So ... why should should she get to sponge, if she's got a steady income? Conservatives like to go on about free-riders. But then they demand that cashed-up retirees should get a free ride. How do they reconcile that? The libs should never have removed the tax on payouts in the first place. It was a bad policy decision designed to help them win an election, no more and no less. And it's a bad policy decision that will only get harder to reverse over time.
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Post by angra on Apr 6, 2013 11:59:23 GMT 10
Blot's latest peon of praise to the great Tony is worth a laugh.
"He will be our most culturally literate PM (SIC. I think he meant illiterate)
As I said at the IPA anniversary dinner, I believe Tony Abbott - if successful at the election - will be the most culturally literate and thoughtful Prime Minister since at least Robert Menzies.
While I have at times argued with him over policy, I have not once had reason to question his character. I believe him to be a thoroughly good man. As I said, it is unimaginable to me that he would ever seek to lead by division or to foster the politics of hate. That simply is not in his character.
Abbott’s superb speech that night simply confirms for me those judgements: "
Brown-nosing as an artform!
Well Menzies had the crude hots for young Queen Liz, whereas Keating merely appreciated Mahler.
"Culturally literate? "
Like Blot?
Tone's favourite songs -
Glen Campbell - ":Rhinestone Cowboy"
Ol' Slim (bless him)-
"The Pub with no Beer"
"I’d Like to Have a Beer with Duncan"
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Post by jack on Apr 6, 2013 12:17:37 GMT 10
" He will be our most culturally literate PM" Oh sure, because his carefully scripted speech worked in brief mentions of Adam and Eve, Athens, Rome, Magna Carta, etc., amid profuse spray of the word 'freedom' and aren't we all gathered here just the very bee's knees. It reads somewhat like the effort of a middling HSC student. Update: Fragment of Abbott's speech, altered upon learning Cardinal Pell would be attending... From the Garden of Eden, to the Exodus, Athenian democracy, the Roman Senate, Magna Carta, the Reformation, the glorious revolution and American independence, the story of our civilisation has been the story of freedom and our struggles to achieve it.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 12:39:01 GMT 10
"The post a few minutes ago trying to draw a connection between the News Limited hacking cases and the Fairfax entry into an ALP database"
This is the same ALP that sought legal advice and which is currently pursuing charges AGAINST those journalists? If so, then where's the inconsistency? What does bolt want gillard to do - go over and beat them up personally?
You're right, though - bolta's ability to ignore context can be quite breathtaking. I'm still not sure if it's just a convenient ruse, or an indication of something more interesting.
But just in case he's reading this (and I think he might), here's a comparison:
On the one hand we have (at least) an entire newspaper engaged in long-term, coordinated, intentional invasions of people's personal privacy for the purpose of writing gossip, and to apply low-level blackmail against their victims. They paid private investigators to spy on people in their daily lives and at their homes - again, for the purpose of writing salacious stories and to apply personal and political influence. They bribed police, threatened critics, and then lied to investigators and inquiries about the whole thing - over a long period of time. If it hadn't come to light that they'd been monitoring the voice mail of a murdered teenager, the public outrage might never have reached the point that the otherwise cowed and threatened elected representatives decided they had no alternative but to act. And when parliament DID decide that they had to do something, murdoch sacked a whole bunch of people who had nothing to do with the hacking, lying, corruption and blackmail in order to try to head off the inquiry. That's NEWS corp in the UK.
On the other hand, we have two reporters who accessed the contacts database of a political party (using a password that they were given by somebody within the organisation) and did so in order to openly report about the kinds of private (and unaccountable) data that the party had collected about voters. That's The Age, in melbourne.
And if anyone truly can't see the difference between those two scenarios ... well, I assume they're a moron.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 12:40:27 GMT 10
"Anti-Catholic witch hunt"
There are catholic witches?
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 12:50:23 GMT 10
"He will be our most culturally literate PM"
Next week we'll hear how he's also a terrific dancer, and once rescued a kitten from a tree.
I'm dying to see how this bromance survives when tony's the one in the cross-hairs. I hope tonez is keeping tabs on how other "friendships" have turned out. Forewarned is forearmed - tony, I just don't want to see you get hurt.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 12:54:55 GMT 10
"reification of Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand' as virtually a moral entity"
Hang on ... I thought the "invisible hand" was some kind of variation on "the stranger". Have I been misled?
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Post by angra on Apr 6, 2013 17:19:14 GMT 10
The Pope seems to be taking a different line to Blot.
"Pope Urges decisive action against child abuse.
Pope Francis has called on the Catholic Church to "act decisively" against paedophile priests, warning that the Church's credibility is on the line."
ABC etc.
The abusers' chief apologist doesn't seem to have got the message. Maybe because he's not a Catholic, so didn't get the memo.
These crazy Dutch protestants!
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Post by jack on Apr 6, 2013 18:16:48 GMT 10
angra, I'm not sure whether Francis wants to go the whole way or keep it all in-house. I haven't seen any reference to mandatory reporting of offences to police. We need to study the actual text of his "decisive" statement.
"tony, I just don't want to see you get hurt."
Hmm, I'm afraid I'd probably have to come out in support of Andrew in the event of any trouble between those two. Sure, Andrew has the megaphone, but Tony has... you know, that thing he does, like with Mark Riley that time.
the Reformation
Still gob-smacked that Tony totally ignored that!
No Reformation, no Pilgrims! Therefore perhaps no "glorious revolution and American independence".
No Protestant Ethic, therefore perhaps no Holy Spirit of Capitalism to carry forth the Evangel of The Market.
Tony is a cultural warrior, but that doesn't make him 'literate'.
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Post by angra on Apr 6, 2013 18:39:53 GMT 10
What did the Dutch Protestants ever do for us?
Well apart from kicking the Catholic Spanish out of the Netherlands, and giving the Brits good king Billy to slaughter a few dozen thousand Irish Catholics, separating themselves from Common Law, defeating the Royal Navy a few times, selling New York for Bali, taking over Indonesia and fucking the West Papuans, then scourging Catholic Dutch political influence, discovering Australia and naming Rottnest Island, they gave us - Apartheid!
Thus is the true religious heritage of the Boltists revealed.
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Post by jack on Apr 6, 2013 20:03:47 GMT 10
Time 100 Update!!1!!!!
Gillard "Absolutely" = 11,406 (50.09%) "No Way" = 11,363 (49.91%)
Must try harder, people!!1!!!!
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Apr 6, 2013 21:50:54 GMT 10
Deleted by poster for being too harsh.
Poster's remorse.
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