December 2008 Archives

I'm presently upgrading from 4.01 to 4.23 of Movable Type, hang on for fixing of commenting and anything else that broke.

In America, the separation of Church and State was made law by the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This is why they don't have prayer in State schools and why they don't have prayer in Congress or the Senate. In Australia, we also have an Establishment clause in our Constitution that separates Church and State:

116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

The problem is that in Australia the law hasn't been enforced. So we have not merely prayer, but enforced scripture periods in State schools, and compulsory Christian prayer in Parliament. As well as highly questionable activities like donations of hundreds of millions of  dollars from the Federal government to the Catholic Church, but to no other non-profit organisation.

It would be interesting to see the Secular Party challenge breaches of this part of the Australian Consititution in court.

protest5


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

December 13th 2008 Protest against internet censorship

protest2


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

December 13th 2008 Protest against internet censorship

Spider killer


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

This is a photo from outside my front door. The wasp is dragging the spider UP to the roof. At least I'm guessing its a wasp...?

The Simpsons are illegal in QLD http://is.gd/b8Z7 and NSW
http://is.gd/b8XX since every show portrays a child strangled or hit,
and by the new definitions, everyone who watches any of it is a child
abuser. This is the kind of logic that will apply to the New Censorship.
Rudd and Conroy pretend its business as usual, but it bans harmless cartoons loved by millions, and makes criminals of us all.

Chookmobile


Originally uploaded by jbimages.

This looks just as distracting as Ian Bryce's Popemobile, but the police don't bother them.

Thanks to @misswired for this!