Monthly Archives: April 2012

When sport becomes complicit with undemocratic political regimes

Posted on 28/04/2012 | Leave a comment

This was most recently the case with the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, where Sebastian Vettel celebrated victory and spilled champagne while police was cracking down on anti-religious discrimination and pro-democracy protesters. Instead of sending a clear signal that the international sporting community will not support, and indeed opposes, this kind of tyranny, the cynical hot wheels circus of Bernie Ecclestone could not have cared less about these matters, and went ahead with proceedings as if the race was being held in Germany or Spain.

And this will again be the case when the European Soccer Championship takes place in Poland and the Ukraine in June this year. The Ukraine has currently locked up their former Premier and Orange Revolution heroine Yulia Tymoshenko for the ridiculous charge of accepting too high prizes from a Russian gas company. The man who had her thrown into jail is not surprisingly the current President of that country and her former main rival, Viktor Yanukovych. German doctors have asked for her to be transferred to a German hospital for treatment of a serious medical condition, which the Ukrainian thugs are refusing to allow. The German President, and good on him, therefore recently cancelled a state visit to the place.

I read that some German politicians are thinking of not travelling to the Ukraine for the Euro games. Hardly a punishment for the Ukrainian government, is it. What should happen is that until Yulia Tymoshenko is aquitted and freed from prison, every single team scheduled to play any Euro games in the Ukraine should refuse to do so. Don’t wait for the spineless European football bureaucracy to come to the party here, because it’s not going to happen. Like the opportunist Ecclestone, these people look at the money and nothing else. If German politicians including the chancellor decide to give the Ukraine the finger, that’s a start, but it will only have any effect if the German soccer team stays away as well.

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Posted in Equality/Rights, Politics

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The Abrahamic faiths are teaming up against marriage and loving couples

Posted on 28/04/2012 | Leave a comment

I guess this is a little bit like the Camorra, the Cosa Nostra and the Chinese Triads closing ranks against a particularly annoying new piece of tax or criminal legislation. Or goings-on may be characterized thusly, as one commenter at this Telegraph article succinctly puts it, “Gay Marriage wrong say pedophiles”.

What is happening is that the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, has called for a united front of believers across the Abrahamic faiths in Britain, in the face of such grave dangers to religious freedom as the marriage of loving couples of the same sex :

“I wonder if we shouldn’t ask for and look for more support among other Christian confessions and indeed, persons of other faiths”

“It seems to me that, concerning the institution of marriage, and indeed the sanctity of human life, we have much in common with the position of the Jewish community, the Chief Rabbi and many of the more significant representatives of Islam.”

An unholy Trinity, if there ever was one. Most astonishingly, the issue of same-sex marriage is seen as an infringement on religious freedom and values :

Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet of Mill Hill United Synagogue in north London, who advises him on family issues, recently accused the Coalition of launching an “assault” on religious values.

And at least some Muslims agree :

In Scotland, the Council of Glasgow Imams recently agreed a joint resolution describing same-sex marriage as an “attack” on their faith and fundamental beliefs.

It’s about time that sickening, intolerant and discriminatory pseudo-values such as those found in religious texts and minds were “assaulted”. And what could be better for the propagation of reason and atheism than a coalition of robed pedophilia-enablers and misogynist theofascists campaigning in unison against the rights of loving couples ?

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Posted in Equality/Rights, Religion

“Doctors for the Family” are the real health risk

Posted on 28/04/2012 | 6 Comments

A sad lot of Christian bigots who have unfortunately found their way into the medical profession, are bringing Australian physicians into disrepute.
These clowns from a lobby group called Doctors for the Family have made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee with regards to the upcoming decision regarding the proposed changes to the Marriage Act here in Australia.
In their letter, they call gay marriage a “health risk”, and state further that :

“We believe that marriage as defined is the basis of a healthy society. We submit that the evidence is clear that children who grow up in a family with a mother and father do better in all parameters than children without”

The letter further claims that legalising same-sex marriage (or, as one might call it were one not of the mindset of the 12th century, marriage) may carry “significant ramifications”, such as “health consequences of that behaviour for our children”.

Now, as far as I can tell, “Doctors for the Family” seems to be the brainchild of one particular Christian lobbyist who sadly happens to be a doctor, one Lachlan Dunjey, a former candidate for the Christian Democratic Party. The whole effort to make submissions to the Senate is orchestrated by and coordinated with, other Christian lobby groups across the country, as this plan of action from the Australian Marriage Forum website clearly shows, featuring not only Dunjey, but also Jimmy Wallace from the ACL.

Dunjey and his co-signers are tragically, and rather embarrassingly, mistaken in their claims. HIV is not a disease of predominantly gay men (let alone women) anymore, but, and in particular in Africa where Christian dogma is still preventing the distribution of condoms, a disease of most often heterosexual (and married) women.

Children brought up by parents of the same sex seem to do if anything better, and certainly not worse, in such an environment, as compared with upbringing by heterosexual couples.

It is well worth going through the list of doctors who signed this pathetic petition, because these are not people you ever want as your family physician, as their obvious lack of knowledge, and inability to accept simple facts on these matters, does seem to demonstrate quite clearly and without a doubt that the people on this list have only one entity in mind which they aim to serve, and that is not you or your family member, but rather the invisible man in the sky they have subscribed to, and in whose name they have suspended their rational thinking.

The majority of Australian physicians and GP’s has no issues with same-sex marriage, and even if so, are able to separate their personal feelings from the best interest of their clients and patients. I guess in a way it is a good thing that we have the names of these bigots out in the open now. That way we can avoid any professional dealings with them.

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Posted in Australia, Equality/Rights, Religion

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