Blogocrats

Labor determined to keep School Chaplains despite High Court decision

TB Queensland — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:01:35 +0000

High Court finds Chaplains in Schools program is invalid
Millions spent on programs so far
Govt vows to fight to keep chaplains in schools

The Gillard Government is once again defying the High Court this time vowing to maintain the controversial “School Chaplains” program.

The program has attracted criticism for amounting to a form of taxpayer funded religious indoctrination, propaganda, and a recruitment channel for religious organisations who are given free reign to prey on vulnerable children who may be subjected to unwelcome religious “counselling.”

Is the Carbon Tax Finished?

TB Queensland — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:22:45 +0000

Reblogged from The Farnham Report:

The following is an extract from Robert Gottliebsen’s article “Gillard’s Perfect Storm“…

The backroom people in the Labor Party must now realise that a series of almost irreversible forces are combining to increase the danger of an Anna Bligh style disaster if a federal election is held around the scheduled date late in 2013.

The first is, of course, the government’s carbon tax position.

We’ve moved

joni — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:48:54 +0000

It is now official. We have now moved into our new home. Comments have now been closed here.

Our new home is www.blogocrats.com

I will keep this site as it is for a while until we work out what to do with it.

See you on the other side.

Message from reb

reb — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:06:24 +0000

Hello fellow human beings (and Toilet Boss)

Tony has asked the question – “WTF is going on?” And I suppose it deserves an answer.

The following is just my view, and joni (and others) may have differing opinions; neither view is perhaps universally right nor wrong, and mine is just my own personal interpretation of how I see things. I guess I owe some sort of explanation.

As most of you know, virtually one year ago (can you believe it?) Tim Dunlop threw in the towel at news.com.au with his blog site – Blogocracy. A few of us kept in contact via email, and from this early collaboration this new site “Blogocrats” was born..

The editorial content has been mostly written by me and joni with occasional guest posts from other bloggers. The debate has been lively and sometimes heated.

We have tried to be as open as possible – with anyone allowed to comment ‘without moderation’.

As you may be aware, joni and me both work full time, so we don’t really have time to review each and every comment before it is published.

Unfortunately, this has led to some occasions where bloggers have launched fairly personal attacks against other participants.

There have been calls for individuals to be banned, and in some cases this measure has been enforced.

I am sure I speak for both joni and myself when I say that I really feel uncomfortable with the idea of having to ban someone from participating, however this has been a step that some people have felt necessary to impose.

At this time I decided to open The Gutter as a no-frills, trailer-trash type of blog with no pretences about being anything intellectual or intelligent. I also wanted to maintain an “open comments’ policy.

Joni has been working on a new home to replace this site using new technology rather than the wordpress software. The new home is now working and live at http://www.blogocrats.com

I imagine joni is making some final changes before announcing “The Launch” of the new Blogocrats web site, but for all intents and purposes people can start blogging there now. You will need to register before you can submit comments.

I think one thing that joni and I have always maintained is that Blogocrats belongs to all of us, it doesn’t belong to me, or joni. The site has evolved over time, with input from many of you, and is what it is at the new home.

I imagine that the lights will soon be switched off here soon, and you’ll be able to continue blogging at the new home…

Cheers
reb

Friday Footy with Tom!

reb — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:27:56 +0000

For those that may be interested – Tom’s Footy Preview.

North Korean Science Sings

Kevin Rennie — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:23:42 +0000

It’s refreshing to hear songs about Science, even if they do honour the “General” aka Kim Jong-il. The Schoolgirl’s Diary is the first North Korean feature film to be distributed internationally. The state of their film making in 2006 only outshone their Science. Let’s hope their nuclear and missile industries are similar fizzers.

For the Flicrit from MIFF 2009, please see:

The Schoolgirl’s Diary: Propaganda 101

Kevin Rennie

Single-Sex Marriage & Labor Policy

B.Tolputt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:18:11 +0000

I admire Rudd for many things, but this particular issue has me livid with rage.

The ALP conference has kicked off and there is a few members from the Labor Left who want to adopt single-sex marriage as Labor policy. A futile effort, but one that I think should be tried now, at the next conference, the one after that, and so on until it is adopted. Regardless of how one looks at it, restricting the rights of marriage to us hetero couples is simply prejudice disguised as “family values”. Everyone knows my thoughts on the matter for this issue and it is shared by a majority of the bloggers here – so I won’t repeat myself.

What I will do is highlight the bloody hypocrisy of Rudd and the Labor power-brokers on this issue. Rudd states the following (my emphasis):

I fully accept that its a matter of controversy and there’ll be debate – and there should be – this is an open society where we can debate and discuss these matters

Yet he and his power-brokers are working as hard as possible to bury the debate completely or, at least, out of view of the public. So what Rudd means is that Labor can debate it and decide on these matters without the input of the public and/or their rank & file members. Now if debate is good & this is an issue that should be debated – why are there such strong political manoeuvrings to remove this issue from public sight?

I’m guessing that might be because they know (as we all do now) that ~60% of the Australian public are for a national civil union / marriage scheme that doesn’t discriminate against single-sex couples. Assuming that the Labor rank & file represents the general public (and I personally think they are a little Left of centre, but am ignoring that for the sake of argument) – this would mean a vote on the issue would go against Rudd and the Labor Right dominated power-brokers. In other words, they wish to deal with the issue behind the scenes because the public / rank & file members support something the leaders / movers & shakers of the Labor Party do not.

I just love democracy – don’t you? It’s just lovely when we as a nation and the rank & file members of the Labor Party are not allowed to have our voices heard because those that manipulate things behind the scenes don’t want us to.

Oh, and Rudd claiming a mandate on preventing single-sex marriage is the lowest form of double-speak I can think of. He promised more for single-sex couples than the Coalition, and now tries to imply that the Australian public think that is all that should be done! I don’t know which is worse – setting yourself a low bar so you don’t have to achieve anything (single-sex marriage, carbon polution targets, etc) or introducing something you know nobody wants in the hopes you can make it permanent before people vote you out (WorkChoices).

This is the t-shirt image that joni will be wearing at the protest on Saturday.

Mister 16%

reb — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:28:53 +0000

For those that may be remotely interested, my highly intelligent, critical analysis of the latest Newspoll results and the implications for Malcolm Turnbull can be found here.

In other news, Tony Abbott has introduced a new episode in the history of the Catholic Church with the establishment of “The Sisters of Perpetual Endorsement” in support of the beleagured Leader.

Monday by the Magazine Rack

reb — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:56:02 +0000

Hello

Good afternoon and welcome to Monday by the Magazine rack.

I’ve just returned from a weekend trip to Adelaide, which, by all accounts, was thoroughly enjoyable.

Despite its reputation, Adelaide is actually quite an interesting place. It’s also very pretty.

It’s also not Queensland, which further adds to its appeal.

And it’s very user-friendly. The airport is very nahce – and is only a twenty buck fair to the City. Compare this to Melbourne where a taxi ride to the city will now cost you fifty smackeroos.

Adelaide also has wine. Lots of wine. And good wine too.

There is also a very nice little seaside town called Glenelg. A very pleasant 30 minute tram trip from town and is similar to say Manly, but without the white trash.

Victor will no doubt provide a full report on the restaurants we went to, so I won’t dwell on that here.

One peculiarity is that the city is almost entirely shrouded in shade. I guess that’s because it’s facing South, or maybe it was just because it’s Winter.

It reminded me a lot of Christchurch but with the distinctive advantage of not being part of New Zealand.

However, Adelaide, like the rest of Australia, is not part of Asia. Which is always a disappointment when staying at five star hotels.

Compare the service you get here to the service one receives in a five star hotel in Asia, and by and large there is simply no comparison.

Catching the flight home also provided some entertainment, with an elderly lady behind me verbalising everything that she could see to her immediate family.

“Oh look, there’s a Cathay Pacific plane”

“It’s about to take off”

“Look Jimmy, the plane’s taking off”

“I think we’re about to take off now”

“I wonder when we’ll be taking off”

“Oh look, they sell coffee”

“And muffins”

“Do you want a muffin?”

“Does anyone else want a muffin?”

“Let’s just eat these chips I brought from home”

“I’m not paying five dollars for a muffin”

“Who in their right mind would pay five dollars for a muffin?”

“Glad I brought these cheezels with us too, eh”

“I wonder when we’re gonna land”

“Is that Hobart there?”

“Aw what a lovely beach”

“Can you see the beach?”

“There’s a coupla boats down there”

“Can you see the boats?”

“Can you see those two boats?”

“Down there.”

“Those two boats…”

“Can you see them?”

“Noice eh?”

“I can’t see the airport”

“Can anyone see the airport?”

“Maybe that’s not Hobart.”

“Where are we goin?”

“Is that Hobart?”

“That can’t be Hobart.”

“That’s a nice beach”

“Oh, he’s turnin’ the plane my way”

“ We’re turning around”

“Yeah, we’re turnin’ around”

“That’s a nice beach”

“Aw, that’s the same beach I saw earlier”

“Can you see the beach?”

“The beach. Can you see it?”

“Down there”

“Aw,and there’s those two boats.”

“Can you see ‘em?”

“Down there”

“the two boats”

“Nice eh?”

I think you get the general idea. This went on non-stop for the entire 90 minute duration of the flight.

All the while I was thinking “Excuse me madam but would you mind kindly just SHUTTING THE F**K UP!!”

But, it’s her family I felt sorry for. Imagine having to live with that night and day.

Jeesus wept.

Flicrit: Milk Of Sorrows

Kevin Rennie — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:14:38 +0000

New Cinema Takes review from MIFF 2009 (Melbourne International Film Festival):

Milk Of Sorrows: walking close to the walls

Melbourne International Film Festival: all publicity…

Kevin Rennie