Those who know me will know that I am livid. Absolutely speechless with outrage by the following decision by our government.
News just in:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/01/2290436.htm
For the next 31 days it is an offence to do anything that will "annoy" a Catholic. Wear an anti-Catholic T-shirt and you could be landed with a $5,500.00 fine.
Not anti-Christian, this is specifically anything that will annoy Catholics!
So will the Anglicans have to hide their church-going activities? Are we deporting the Hari Krishna's to Melbourne for the month? Forcing muslim women to remove their head cloths? Will my friend be arrested if she wears her pentagram necklace where it can be seen ???
Needless to say I will not be participating in any further mod decisions regarding religion on the group email lists in the next few weeks. I'm too angry to be objective.
79 comments:
Wow. Just...Wow.
FFS, that is utterly ridiculous! And I thought we were ridiculously PC in England but Australia has just won that award hands down. Just proves my long held belief that the Catholic Church has no sense of humour. I'm with you on this one Mel!
Well, that's just stupid. Should I feel comforted that I'm not the only one living in a place that's going to hell on the express route??
Catholics may find that sentiment offensive :) :) :) :)
Tough...
{snicker} Thank the Gods I'm going to over the other side of the country during the worst of this period .....
Completely absurd. I could swear that one was cooked up by some American Protestant evangelicals. But they don't like Catholics either!
We have the Pope visiting for one day on the 19 July - so no-one can upset any type of Catholic in any way shape or form for the entire month.
If that isn't denial of freedom of speech then I don't know what is....
You may have forgotten one thing - Australia doesn't have an enshrined right to freedom of speech. It's not in our constitution nor are we signatories to the Bill of Rights.
No I hadn't forgotten. It was actually discussed with co-workers today. Freedom of Speech is only *implied* in our constitution.
I still think there's an ethical issue that needs to be addressed!
Oh hell yes.
Remind me to talk to you about the book I'm currently reading...
I second that motion, LOL!!!
Let's just say that the Catholics have actually laid a very bad egg into their own nest when they elected Ratzinger to Pope. He's not pious, he's pompous, highly intelligent, highly dangerous, highly political and highly self-destructive to the church in the long run. These old men are getting more ridiculous every day.
Mel, you have my utter and infinite understanding on your views in this regard. I think you'll be well off far away from Sydney for the two weeks you plan in Perth and you'll do well enough to make yourself tiny for the remainder of the month. I hate to say it, but it's probably best to just ride it out and badmouth everything right after the old fart's departure and the lift of the ban! But I do hope that the authorities concerned will get theirs afterwards!!!
Go ahead and do tell - sounds like something I could be interested in :-D
"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.
It's available under Creative Commons licence, which means you're free to download it for nothing. I recommend www.feedbooks.com - it has all of his stuff. And I recommend it all. But this one especially should be read by all Americans, and anyone else worried about their privacy and freedoms in today's world.
The name will make sense if you think about George Orwell.
Noted - I'll take a hop to that site tonight!
I've been trying my hands on that book for weeks !!!!! Have you been to Doctorow's blog in the last few months? They actually discuss all of the techniques and methods outlined in the book !!!!
Mariann its a book aimed at teenagers and I suspect it will definitely influence the next generation of adults and decision makers !!!!!!! I haven't heard of *any* teenager who has started to read it and not finished it! Even usual non-readers are devouring this book !!!
You can tell I slept on this. I had a wicked little thought as I dropped off this morning. If I had a TV station, I would deliberately schedule a month of anti-Catholic programming (inluding Monty Python)!
It is so ludicrous that the next thing we'll be told to believe is that Mugabe is a fairly elected President and that he is a seriously mis-understood man!
Speaking of Mugabe, did anyone (in Australia) see Paul McDermott's comment about him on Good News Week last night?
Hear, hear! I can't bear to watch the piety of the Catholics when they are led by a bunch of utterly corrupt men. Men who have no respect for women and who condone child abuse by turning a blind eye to known abusers employed by the church to 'care' for their parishioners. As for their financial dealings, the least said, the better.
Ratzinger has a well known and well earned reputation from years as John-Paul 2's deputy - his nickname as God's Rottweiler is apt.
I suspect you and I are the only Aussies in this group that actually watch Good News Week.
And I gotta confess I was also emailing at the same time - what was the comment?
NONE of our channels are that brave. Maybe SBS? But I doubt even that - the Christians are indeed a powerful and rich lobby group in the country ....
Wow - unbelievable!!!
Haven't they always? Read a biography of my old mate Pope Leo X. He was Medici and thought up the whole scam of indulgences.
Or go back further to the Disciple Simon - from all accounts (translations of Dead Sea Scrolls) he was a misogynistic prick who was more worried about politics and power plays than he ever was about "Christian" values! Have their leaders changed?
Is it a coincidence that RU486 is still illegal in Australia? That abortion is still such a taboo that clinics and doctors are regularly broken into, beaten up .....
Stephen do you remember the government sponsored family planning leaflets that were handed out last year ??? For women considering abortion there was a helpline - staffed and paid for by one of the Christian churches! Yeah that would have been objective caring support .....
Here abortion is seen as birth control. The abortion rates are astronomical. I had a friend for many years who was a Catholic born and raised in Tasmania who was very pro-life. I found the basis for many of her arguments quite repugnant and encouraging young girls to have these children and then raise them in single parent families, thus contributing to 20 years of living from welfare benefits. Some of the emotional blackmail used to make them keep the baby make me truly angry and still does many years later. That was not the reason the friendship failed - that was down to her husband!
THAT is bad, too!
I'm a firm believer that abortion should be fully legal up to the 12th week, BUT it should be the last resort. IF a teenager gets pregnant and is talked into keeping the baby, she should be getting a boost in education, not social welfare, she should have to learn to be responsible for her actions (and the resulting child) by working for her life and the baby's.
I suspect though, that the Christian pro-lifers are more interested in forcing women out of workforce and keeping them downtrodden, so they can be more easily manipulated. After all, only dumb people make good sheep. That's also why they will go as far as to kill people to "save innocent life" - they kill people and claim that they had to do it to save those poor unborn babies. Not giving a damn about them once they're born unless they can keep on indoctrinating and brainwashing them...
And for using it as a way of birth control: HOW much better off would we be if we told and SHOWED young people how to use contraceptives?
While it WAS for the sake of safe sex, we once had a news reader (during the main news show at prime tv time) here in Switzerland who publicly demonstrated the use of a condom on TV - okay, only over a finger, but he did that very well and was still highly respected after that news show.
Because we get to hear about these things on a regular basis and at schools the teachers talk about it young people use contraceptives at a higher degree than elsewhere. It's one area you cannot stray from talking about it again and again and again!
Recently I've spent a little time in Wikipedia reading up summaries about all the popes so far. Leo X was one of the worst. Closely followed by another Leo, the one with the ordinance number XII. He was the one who thought up the other scam of the infallibility (is that the right term?) of the pope! It's probably been one of the worst things they could have invented. And the whole community just swallowed it up!!!
That's (again) like Mugabe claiming to be the rightfully elected president of Zimbabwe...
RU486 is a good medicament - if really needed... It helps where other means won't help anymore and is much less disagreeable than any other method of abortion.
That family planning leaflet sounds like the abomination the Germans have: every woman who wants to abort (who *wants* that anyway? I don't know anyone who ever aborted a pregnancy and did that without a heavy heart. Probably not even all victims of rape can do it easily) has to pass a "consulting therapy", which is mostly given by Christian oriented people!!!
And on another level there are a good number of surgeons in Germany and France, and probably other countries as well, who specialise on re-creating a hymen for young muslim women who get married (and have either never had a hymen or have already had intercourse and want to hide that fact). What do you think of these?
I went to a Catholic high from aged 14 to 18.
The sum total of sex education was "don't do it until you are married and then only because you have to - to have children. Its something you do for your husband like washing his clothes"
You can understand why I was sent to the Principal's office on a regular basis while I was at that school.
I was taught about sex using pictures out of a medical text book at the beginning of puberty and as mum was an ex-nurse there were really interesting books around that I read (medical texts). So I *taught* the medical facts to most of the girls in my school. And some of the boys.
And no I didn't do the horizontal tango with any of them - the one boy I had a huge crush on discovered at University that he was gay.
Here we do have the "morning after Pill". Quite frankly I don't know what it is from a medical standpoint.
Once many years ago, I had sex with my husband while I was ovulating and the condom broke. I did not want a child at that point so I saw my doctor the next day and was given the Morning After Pill.
The amount of Hormone and emotional upset as well as the physical cramping it induced was frightening. There is no way I could ever consider using it casually or as a condom replacement.
As I said to mum a few minutes ago on the phone, I do not know if I could have an abortion if I discovered I was pregnant - I suspect it one of those things that you really don;t know until you are in that situation. What I *do* know is that I want the *option* of choice to terminate.
I don't believe in bringing children into this world if you are not equipped medically, emotionally, physically or intellectually to care for them. That covers everybody from drug addicts to women who have no maternal feelings. It is an intensely personal choice - but I want the right for it to *be* a choice.
Just waking up on this side of the pond, LOL.
As far as the original note of the blog - Yes, it is BS. A heaping full bag of flaming BS. I am sure there are already anti-harrasment laws on the books, why do they need to revise them for one faith?
On the rest of it, I don't believe in abortion as birth control. BUT, I do think the choice should be the woman's. Childbirth does horrible and irreversible things to your body. I do think that if a woman is willing to have the child, adoption is a better option than abortion, BUT IT IS HER CHOICE. At least in this country there is a 10 year waiting list to adopt an 'American' child. And yet American children are being killed every day. New mom's leaving them in dumpsters or out in the woods because they 'don't know what else to do' and need parental consent for an abortion. So yeah, they could use some education.
That's 100% of how I see it, too.
The Morning after pill is available here, too, but they keep telling people it's for accidents like yours and not recommendable for precisely the reasons and consequences you describe. RU 486 seems to have less of those side effects, but it still has them. It's still better than all the physical methods.
All of my nieces and nephews luckily knew the facts of life and most of the details regarding the reproduction before they were six or seven years old, even well protected Dominique knew "how" things worked. My SIL just wasn't as outspoken as my younger brother. HIS son is 7 years younger than Dominique, but Adrian knew at age 6 what a dildo was. And informed Dominique about that fact when the three of us were having fun with a Larry Laffer game (Larry's on a cruise and if you hit certain points on the screen in certain environments you got bonus points and a little red and white striped dildo with a dwarf's head jumped out of something like a jack-in-the-box). I suspect that Dominique left that naiveté behind a while ago by now :-)
It's incredible how the Christians (and other monotheological brands) manage to make sexuality something taboo and dirty, too. I mean, the more we talk about it the less frightening and dirty it gets. Instead of letting everyone live as they would by nature we have to watch these old (often enough dirty themselves) men talk us into feeling guilty about one of the most basic needs of every mammal (and not even the church idiots will deny that homo sapiens sapiens is a mammal!).
What's wrong with them? They deny it to themselves (whoever invented the celibacy scam was another fully-blown idiot) and thus they deny it to everyone else! Pure jealousy or what?
The conservative Christian movement (aka the Christianists) in the US don't want abortion as an option, ever. Even if the mother's life is in danger (which NEVER made any sense to me). They have rightly been accused of only being interested in getting the pregnancy carried to term, and then washing their hands of the affair afterward. Well if you're so pro-life, why don't some of you step up and adopt these babies who weren't wanted in the first place, instead of leaving them with a mother who is likely ill-prepared and ill-equipped to be a parent. Leave these babies with a mother who's not ready for them and the next headline you'll see is one where the child was beaten to death by mom and/or her boyfriend du jour.
On national television - "And Mr Mugabe... Fuck off and die."
And just to add a bit of strangeness to the discussion...
The Bible itself tells you that you're all sheep. Did you ever stop to think what that meant?
Bible - pronounced Buy Bull.
From someone recently departed, on religious wars... "You're basically fighting over who has the better imaginary friend. My god's dick is bigger than your god's dick!"
A cult is just a religion with no political power
A lot of people say I should become a priest because I'm so good with children.
Atheism. Because reality is awesome.
Born against christian
Born again? What went wrong the first time?
Don't pray in my school and I won't think in your church.
Fundamentalism stops a thinking mind
God was my co-pilot until we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him.
God, protect me from your followers
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.
He's your god; they're your rules; you burn in hell.
Humanity's first sin was faith; the first virtue was doubt.
I am a Scientologist. In case of accident, please call Ghostbusters.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.
If you take the Bible literally, then you've been taken - literally.
I'm not against god, I'm against the misuse of god.
It is the test of a good religion whether you can make a joke about it.
It's not God I dislike, It's his fan club that gets me.
Let Jesus be your anchor! So when Satan rocks your boat, throw Jesus overboard!
Maybe somebody should date-rape god and see how pro-life he is then
Men never do evil so completely or cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
Religion: keeping the poor from killing the rich for 2000 years.
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning.
Thou shalt not kill, except in the name of God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost.
What have been the fruits of religion? ...Superstition, bigotry and persecution.
Why does the church restrain our most basic human drive: to think?
Why don't closed minds ever come with closed mouths?
These are both quoted in "The God Delusion"...
I really like the "Thou shalt not kill" quote - I have been told in all earnesty by someone that it makes a difference whether it says "Thou shalt not kill" or "Thou shalt not slay" and that it depended which translation of the bible you used then killing per se would not be so bad.
So, what soldiers do was completely okay, because it was not in the sense of the commandment.
I *always* dislike people who keep trying to tell me that soldiers who have to kill are not murderers. You willingly take a life - what else is that than murder? I'd rather let the person go who kills another in affect than a soldier who is TAUGHT to kill. Especially soldiers who do this for a profession.
Spat Coke all over the keyboard reading that. Here the newsreader would be instantly sacked!
Ah yes, but wouldn't it be worth it
A few things to note on British life
Abortion is legal until week 24. A recent attempt to reduce the limit to 20 weeks was chucked out on a parliamentary vote. I think this is wrong as a lot of children born at 20-24 weeks survive.
Here because of the unprecedented numbers of single mothers, we are no breeding a third generation of single mothers who see nothing wrong with casual sex with neither partner taking responsibility for contraception. Here, having a child is seen as a short cut to social housing. I know of many mothers who have multiple children all with different fathers, who often don't even know who the correct father is because they were blind drunk at the time. They think that a lasting relationship means the father might be around when the baby arrives.
Yes I am cynical but if you had seen some of the horrors that happen on a daily basis in this country, you would be shocked rigid. There is a case I know of a man who slept with a 14 year old. Yes, it is wrong and it has gotten him a 5 year IPP (interest of public protection) for a first offence. The press went to town calling him all the names under the sun. I've spent a week counselling the mother of the offender who is in pieces over this. There is a lot more to this case and what was said in the court and also the press. The other side of the story is this - the victim used emotional blackmail to bed the offender and the mother has sold her story to a womans magazine! I just seem to be angry about everything at the moment.
Having read the beginning of this I really couldn't believe that it wasn't April 1st. Its unbelievable that in the 21st century and with hundreds of years of religious persecution behind us, there are governments who still persist in this kind of behaviour. I've been reading Caribbean by James Michener recently who graphically decribes the Spanish Inquisition and all the horrors associated with it and yet there are those who still insist that THEIR religion is the only one.
Ban all religion and you will stop 90% of the wars in this world.
As for abortion I find it almost laughable that the most anti abortionists are always male. No woman, whether she be prostitute or housewife enters into this easily. and as Mel says it is the one thing that you cannot make a pronouncement on unless you have been in that situation. It is very easy to say yes, I would have an abortion until that day comes and it is up to you to make that final decision. The crux of the matter is that a woman SHOULD have the choice.
Would it ever! Can you just see the campaign to get him/her reinstated?
I'd certainly sign it
Paul McDermott is not a newsreader - he is always outspoken and runs a comedy news review show called "Good News Week". http://ten.com.au/ten/tv_gnw.html
Check it out - it often devolves down into poo jokes - but it has moments of *cutting* social commentary.
The theme song, sung by Paul (who has a good voice) is:
Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere,
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky,
It's good news week,
Someones found a way to give,
The rotting dead a will to live,
Go on and never die.
Ah here's the original: http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/596325.html
US and UK guests on the show are frequently seen with their mouths hanging open and saying "You can't say *that* !!!!
My Favourite is still Mikey holding up one of those big dummies (pacifiers for the US) made entirely out of toffee. One of the panelists said: "you wont fit that!"
Mikey's response: Not in my mouth, no.
That one was include int he advertisements for the show for a couple of weeks .....
Around here most pro-lifers or anit-abortionists are male and/or women past child-bearing age.
Seriously look at who is running the petitions you see in shopping centres.
BTW Whatever happened to the church's vow of poverty?
Only applies to those who are already poor ;)
I have benn told in all seriousness by a number of Chistian clergymen that "thou shalt not kill" only refers to other Christians. Its OK to kill heatherns and those who are not "Chrisitan enough".
One of the things my parents did - whether deliberately or not" was send me around all the different youth activities run by all the differing flavourings of Christianty. The one where they want you to speak in tongues I only went once, but some I went to for a period of months, and yes for one year I even taught Sunday School for a Baptist church. However I mostly taught the kids craft activities and kept them quiet rather than any religious indoctrination.
My parents did me a huge favour sending me to all of these places and meeting all of these flavourings. The Catholics were the most fundamental and the most devisive of all of them. The Catholics order of precedent was:
God
Catholic males (including children)
Other Christian males
Other Christian Children
All Women
Heathens (ie everyone else)
Thou Shalt not Kill actually only refers to Catholic males. And they feel superior to Muslims ????
Why am I not surprised you have so many religious quotes in your collection .....
Totally true though - and it has its roots in old Judaism. Go back to the bible and read it up where it basically says that everyone NOT Jewish must be slain without mercy at all.
This rule was kept through all monotheistic religions. If you slay people not belonging to your group (and they can't become a member of your group either!) you go directly to paradise. Remember the Pasdaran? The elite guards in Iran? They did everything to kill enemies because they believed so strongly that they would be sent straight to heaven when they died their martyr death. It's an in-group / out-group phenomenon.
And it actually goes back even further, when small clusters of humans huddled together and supported each other to survive. Everything outside of the group was basically an enemy.
So I can understand the seriousness of these people who told you that.
The historical Jesus would have been completely fine with this statement, too!
Oh, and another thing Dawkins talks about, which was a bit of an eye-opener:
All that talk of some Christians about their "Christian children" is absolute hogwash. You can talk about a child of Christian (or Muslim or whatever else strikes your fancy) parent, but certainly not a Christian child.
He goes on to doubt that any normal child up to ten years of age or even older is able to form a distanced, informed decision about its religous beliefs (or lack thereof, but if the children are indoctrinated from the start they will, of course take over their parents' beliefs)
Forwarded from a colleague regarding the original rant on getting arrested for "annoying" a Catholic:
Best suggestion for an 'annoying' t-shirt yet:
"Jesus annoyed the authorities, too."
Good one!
The theory is that is actually plays on the Catholic's sympathies rather than annoying them ....
The church's vow of poverty applies to the individuals, not the organisation.
It also isn't universal anyway.
If Jesus were to stand up today
He'd be gunned down cold by the CIA.
More info on the new laws:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/church-wanted-annoy-law-iemma-no-says-church/2008/07/02/1214950807788.html
And a great blog:
"But that's not what the laws are about. They're about mollycoddling an institution that has no grounds for special treatment, and is perfectly capable for sticking up for itself."
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/dom_knight/019325.html
Essential reading !!!
And I want to state that the tenets of the Catholic Church, and those of say a non-denominational Christian church are leagues apart. Even my own pastor thinks the Catholics are out of their gourds.
And I didn't even include them all :-)
The worst in your authorities setting up these laws is that the catholics now have a precedence set and they're going to demand any other government of every other country that's going to be haunted by this dirty old man and his cohorts
While I am anti-fundamentalist, this came up in my recent bloggings this morning:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/860905/How-Creationists-Explain-Evolution---SCARY
Comments?
Yikes! Even scarier is how many people actually believe this! From the camp of "the Bible says so. I believe it. That settles it." particularly if it is the King James II Bible. It has never occurred to these people that there MIGHT be differences in meaning when the Bible was translated from earlier versions in other languages. Oh no, God dictated the whole thing, word for word! In fact, God had a fax machine to tell Genesis the story of creation!
But what about this Marduk stuff? That would be considered heathen by the believers in the King James II bible, LOL!!!
I like the fax machine thing, LOL
That's one of the easiest things to upset fundies with - The Bible Says so !!!
Really? Which version? The King Janes that was re-written to support the existing power structure at the time! The Good News which was re-written to support the "sensibilities" as well as language of the late 20th Century ... Or do you read Ancient Hebrew?
What about the Celtic Church vs the Roman Church schism in the 7th Century - what are your thoughts on the re-writing of the Bible after the Romans won the debates?
And where do the Dead Sea Scrolls fit in? The gospels according to Mary and Judas?
Usdually they've run away screaming or start foaming at the mouth by the time I get to this point ...
You know its probably a Good Thing (tm) that I'm going to be on the other side of the country - there are certainly fundamentalist Catholics around .....
Well, I personally believe The Bible is the first historical fiction novel to hit the shelves. I think the characters existed in some form, and all of the events depicted are based on something local to the writer - loosely based or otherwise. Beyond that, I don't really care, and I'm certainly not going to base my life on it. Dead Sea Scrolls - some poor slob's research notes, all but disregarded in the final edit. I think the builders of the pryamids might be jazzed to think they accomplished that before they even existed!! And we thought we had 'em figured out - ha!!
Does being so naive comfort people??? Is ignorance bliss? Since you can't go back, I guess I'll never know.... But then again, I'm a Conservative. A Middle-of-the-Road Conservative with radical tendancies, so I could just be talking out my ass, too :)
The first texts of the bible have (and that's a fact) been "written" between around 80 to 100 AC. Which means that the sagas in it have been around for quite some time before. Remember that creationists claim that the world is only something between 4500 and 6000 years old!
Not many of the Old Testament characters were actually real characters. The truth about these stories is so buried in the mist of time it will never be recovered. Many of the characters in the New Testament ARE historical characters but they're so obscured that very little of what's written in the bible is actually fact. Most is myth at best.
The Romans have been quite good at recording stuff - beaurocrats as they were :-)
One of my personal theories is that Jesus coming back after death was probably due to him surviving his crucification. Why? Because the Romans, when they condemned someone to death by crucification (which was a common penalty for them) and that person survived a certain amount of time, then that person would be taken down and spared. Most didn't survive long, but there were the occasional people who survived. The Romans believed that a person surviving the crucification was a divine intervention and respected that.
I'm pretty sure that they stashed Jesus away after his supposed death (and I also thik they didn't really have the means to safely decide when a person was dead before they almost started to stink) and he stood up once more because he wasn't actually dead...
One thing was sure - the guy was a very reactionary Jew, he had a lot on his mind but certainly NOT the start of a new religion.
I believe in a higher power, but I don't believe the Bible was dictated by God. I believe it was a collection of traditional stories, handed down over the generations and like all stories, each teller probably added their own twist to it. Sure, there may be some nuggets of truth, but I will never believe everything in it. And I personally believe in evolution. Whether man evolved or we were placed here as a cosmic science experiment, I do not know, but I don't believe any being created the planet or the rest of the universe. I think whatever higher power there is, is just another life form. One so far beyond what we are capable that it truly is a God. Perhaps 'God' was an alien who found a race of hairy knuckle-draggers on this pretty blue planet and decided to tweak their DNA and see what would happen. Don't know. I like thinking about it though. I don't think believeing in a higher being makes you stupid. If humans thoughts, feelings, and all body functions are dependant on electrical impulses, I can believe that some form of life may have evolved beyond the meat sack we use to transmit those impulses. And no reason such a being could not read thoughts, since those are also electrical impulses. Hence, the whole God knows what you are thinking thing. And frankly, if some energy being is hanging around, talking to me once and a while, I am perfectly willing to call them God and worship them since I am not even close to attaining that level of being. What can I say, I am shallow, LOL.
From the comments section of a recent blog on Susie Bright's Journal:
"Oh and by the way, did you know that Heaven is HOTTER than Hell? It was _proven_ and the proof printed in the Bulletin of the Optical Society of America some years ago.
It works like this -
Hell is at the melting temperature of brimstone (sulphur) and thus must be at whatever that temperature is. (I seem to recall it was about 900 degrees but cannot be certain.)
Heaven - "shines with the light of seven suns and seven moons", and if we take that to mean equivalent to the energy reaching the surface of the Earth times the appropriate factors, then the temperature must be _greater_ than that of Hell.
I can send you the citation if you would like. :-D"
Sisu - you *may* be interested in reading this:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Bridge/1831/zell.html
This was sent to me by a friend nearly 20 years ago :) :)
I'm not trying to convert anyone - just providing a viewpoint others may find interesting ;)
So I have to ask, just to be provocative and annoy you further....
What are you likely to be doing or saying in the next few weeks that would annoy a Catholic?
Or could you just keep your mouth shut and avoid all Catholics for a while?
^^^^^^^
[PMSL and running away before you start throwing things at me. If the phone rings, I ain't answering]
I'm drinking a beer, watching Bones and then heading to bed. Brain already switched off.
This is a running gag at work obviously at the moment so I'd have to dredge the memory cells for all the comments made over the last couple of days .....
Tomorrow!
Did you know that I can annoy people with just my presence .... ask my staff :)
I did...know ...that is...
I just have to walk into a room and people can be annoyed...meh, who cares...Tpday is not the day I can please everybody and tomorrow I won't even be trying.
[Ooh, you "Premiumed" too...so nice without those annoying Philipino adverts:) ]
I learn from the best - and you my dear can make people unsub from your list with just *one* email :) :) :) :)
Wel- church-heads anyway ...
It's a talent I have...
More blogging from other people on the World Youth Day event ....
http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1897
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2008/07/01/2291138.htm
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/07/02/annoyed/
And I *adore*:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/06/the_official_australian_vent_a.php
Locally produced protest T-shirts ....
http://www.redbubble.com/people/pauk/clothing
Love the first one......love it. Would apply to BAPXS..."sit down, stitch, and STFU"
Actually, I find it very interesting. I love to see the different viewpoints on the origins of man and religion.
Anyone who is interested in one hypothesis (backed up with evidence) on what happened at the crucifixion should read "The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail". It's non-fiction, and dry as all get out for a fair while as it sets out its evidence. But then it *really* gets interesting.
Love it. Does that mean you are going to buy one for each of the mods?
Having seen our bank balance today and fallen off the chair in shock, the answer is no.
Oh dear. I can't comment - I spent my last $10 last night on fast food on the way home after work drinkies. I literally have no money except for some loose change until next Wedneaday - pay day.1`1111111111111111111111s
And you just heard Trub's thoughts on the matter.
I also have a sex party to go to this afternoon. I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into but apparently it a Tupperware party style gathering for sex toys. Alison's 18 year old daughter is arranging it with her friends and Alison and I have been invited to provide the "mature" element.
Yes I can hear the howls of laughter from here!
Good thing I'm out of money or I may be tempted to spend an awful amount of money - the toy chest does need new toys .....
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