Friday, August 24, 2012

Vendors

Why is it that even when you come across a vendor who really seems to be one of those who stand out from the crowd as having good software and good support, when you start digging a little deeper, the owner turn out to be one of the biggest cnuts you've ever had the displeasure of dealing with and makes you sincerely disappointed that you've actually recommended/sold their software to a good client.


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Friday, August 17, 2012

Father Angel Armando Perez, Catholic Priest, Allegedly Caught In Underwear Chasing Boy

I don't know if there's anything more I need to say with a title like that: Read the full article here.

If hell actually existed, there'd be a lot of catholic priests with their name at the top of the list! :(

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Somewhere To Think

There are a number of evidence-based, critical thinking groups in and around Brisbane and South East Queensland.  I know of a number of them, but no doubt there are others that I am as yet unaware of.  To remedy the situation for not only myself but for anyone who lives in or is visiting South East Queensland, I have set up http://SomewhereToThink.com.au as a portal to these groups.

So, if you know of any evidence-based, critical thinking groups around SEQ that are not on the list, please send me the URLs so I can add them and keep in contact with their organizers.

Also, if you would find this portal of benefit of benefit to you or someone you know and you/they aren't in South East Queensland, ping me and let me know - ultimately I would like to see this portal used in other areas, but I had to start somewhere and as they say, there's no place like home! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Government Wins Plain Packaging Battle Against Big Tobacco

Congratulations to the Australian Federal Government who today won their High Court battle with Big Tobacco.  The High Court of Australia has deemed that the Federal Labor Government's "Plain Packaging" legislation is Constitutionally valid.

This is not only a win for the Government, but also for the health of the Australian population in general.  Let's hope this encourages New Zealand and the United Kingdom as well as other countries to go down a similar path.

More at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/big-tobacco-loses-high-court-battle-over-plain-packaging-20120815-247kz.html

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Monday, August 06, 2012

Another Catholic Bishop Likes Slippery Slope Fallacies

Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen, who claims "As Bishop of Aberdeen, I know there are gay people among the community of the Church. I promise I will always respect and love them and uphold them in their relationship with the God who loves them. But I won’t marry them. It just can’t be done." seems to have a penchant for slippery slopes - maybe he really wanted a Slip 'n' Slide as a kid.

He questioned why, if Scotland treated its citizens all equally and therefore allowed gay people to get married, this equality would not extend to “nieces who genuinely, truly love their uncles” and why men could not have two wives.  This is the exact same slippery slope fallacy that was treated with the respect it deserved when Tony Jones threw to Jeremy Marou and after he stopped laughing, he said "That is the most... weirdest question I've ever heard!" and left it at that.

Now, with the history the Catholic Church has with immorality and their support for paedophile priests in preference to the children who they have raped, I don't know how anyone can take any Catholic priest of any level seriously - and it seems that the higher the level that a priest achieves in the Catholic church, the more involved they become with protecting the paedophile priests from prosecution by the laws of the land in which their priests have raped their parishoner's children.

Earlier this year in Australia, confidential police reports detailed 40 suicides of people who had previously been abused by Catholic clergy.  There are many more known cases in other reports.  The church knew about this and had attempted to keep this information quiet.  This is abhorrent and indicative of an institution that has no self control and no ability whatsoever to self-regulate.  What's even worse is that the church continues to try and keep this information private even though there's a huge outcry in Australia for a full investigation into how the Catholic church operates regarding its paedophile priests.

And in case you think George Pell is completely clear, have a read of this article.

Currently, evidence about three of the Catholic Church's most senior priests is being referred to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions for possible charges.

So, while the Catholic church continues to rape children and support hiding this information about these heinous crimes from the parishioners and the authorities, they think they have the right to question governments' calls for treating all people fairly when it comes to gay rights.  How can the Catholic church hold any sway in a moral society?


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Sunday, August 05, 2012

The ACLNP Shows Its Hand - Over and Over

I spent a bit of effort, even though I knew that the Qld Labor Party had used all its rope to hang itself, encouraging people to look carefully at the Queensland Liberal National Party and what it stood for before the last Qld elections.  There was no chance Labor would retain power, and even though they retained less than a mini-van worth of seats, making their trips from the airport rather cost effective, I think most of Qld was surprised by how much of a flogging they copped at the voting booths.

The real issue, however, was how closely aligned the Qld LNP were with people like Clive Palmer and the Australian Christian Lobby.  I've been calling this party the "ACLNP", the "Australian Christian Lobbyral National Party" of late as the influence of the ACL is becoming more publicly visible.  Clive Palmer has changed his mind recently and instead of intending to run for the Federal seat of Lilley (Wayne Swan's seat). I hear he's now intending to contest the Federal seat of Kennedy - Bob Katter's seat. The ACLNP may soon become the "Australian Christian Lobbyral National Palmer" which will be even more disappointing than it is now.

In recent times, Campbell Newman and the ACLNP have been going about dismantling Queensland's public support systems one by one - first it was pulling funding from Healthy Communities, and civilian workers in the Police Force and Department of Community Safety, Public Service job cuts including the Ambulance service), the Tenant Advice and Advisory Service (which is funded by the interest earned on Tenant's own bonds) and the latest is the cutting of Breast Cancer services.  All of this is offset, of course, by the ACLNP's funding of upgrades to the Gold Coast Turf Club as part of its $110m funding commitment of the racing industry.

Yes, it appears that my pre-election warnings to people are coming true - the ACLNP is pulling funding from beneficial public services and funding the redevelopment of their mates' projects.  After all, who needs to look into the development of solar power when we can continue to keep Clive Palmer's Mineralogy afloat instead?  Of course, we can add to this interesting look at our energy future the fact that the LNP wants to remove climate change education from Queensland schools. The LNP Noosa delegate Richard Pearson claims that the climate change discussion is politically focused as the science isn't set - a position clearly promoted by the climate change deniers who are generally funded by people and companies who have massive investments in the current energy technologies (mainly oil and mining) even though the vast, vast majority of climate scientists agree that not only is the climate getting warmer, but that anthropogenic global warming is increasing the level of warming that we're seeing.

So, the LNP is clearly siding with the fundamentalist christian right lobby group (who represents very, very few people outside the ACL itself) and people like Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart who will deny climate science with a vengeance in order to protect their personal investments.

Welcome to the Theocratic State of Queensland! :(


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie