Chaplains

You know what this world really really needs? More religion!

What's that you say in horror?

Northern Ireland? Millions of Catholics dying of AIDS? Islamic Fundamentalism? Female Circumcision? Homophobia? Assisting the Nazis? Covering up child abuse?

Ah, that's all minor stuff. Every group in society has its faults! Come on. I mean surely if we forgive the Scottish for being tightarses and the Yanks for being stupid then we can forgive organised religion giving the world wars, disease, prejudice and Hitler?

Let's put all of that to one side and concentrate on what religion does best - it installs 'good' 'christian' values in our young people of course.

And so with this in mind John Howard has announced that the government is spending $90 million of OUR money on subsidising the cost of employing Chaplains in state, and wait for it, PRIVATE schools. Way to go Johnny! Not only is he going to waste $90 million of our money on something that is completely unnecessary but he is going to give a lot of it to schools that are already loaded. Brilliant! So a cleaner earning $25K a year is now not only subsidising the private school fees of the rich but is now also subsidising the religious indoctrination of the rich. Wow! Now that's a fair go society.

Now, John could have agreed to fund secular school counsellors - you know the types who don't bang on about abstinence from sex and live in the real world. But no they would be far too leftwing, radical and liberal for our Johnny. So he thought, bugger the separation of church and state I'll just ride roughshod over a hundred odd years of tradition (tradition being a thing that Johnny usually loves so much) and inject religion into the public realm.

Well, I am glad he is putting our money towards the real crisis areas of Australian society.

Anonymous Lefty has more.

Grrr...

Just over 3 weeks ago I joined the Australian Labor Party or the Victorian branch of the party to be precise.

I did this for several reasons, the main being that the more I live here the more I loathe little Johnny and I want to channel my hatred towards him and his party in a more constructive way than simply ranting on this blog from time to time (as therapeutic as this undoubtedly is). Now, I have no great affinity to the ALP, I think Beazley is an uninspiring leader whose time has been and gone and I also think the party here is still far too tied up with the Union movement. Of course the labour movement forms the foundation of any social democratic party but the party must realise that it's elected to act for all the people not just union members.

ANYWAY, I put these doubts to one side and filled in my internet application form a few weeks ago. I am yet to hear back from them - unlike with the Labour Party in the UK you aren't just immediately signed up but instead have to go through an approval process.

What with the Victorian election campaign kicking off I thought it was a good time to get involved and do some work for the party. And then came this

Now I joined the party more because I was against the other party (Liberals) than I was FOR Labor. The Victorian Labor Party seem pretty timid to me and I am not a fan of Brack's social conservatism. However, they are still a billion times better than the Conservative parties.

I joined Labor because I am against bigotry about civil unions, I am against religious attempts to stop stem cell research, I am against the outrageous new media laws that have just been passed in the federal parliament, I am against the breaking down of the separation of church and state, I am against the ridiculous 'War on Drugs', I am against rightwing nuts with their simplistic, prejudiced view of the world. It so happens that the Labor Party shares my philosophy in most of these areas.

Then why oh why are they even considering giving their preferences to the rightwing, morality hatemob that is Family fucking First? They hold opinions that Labor should be diametrically opposed to and I detest everything they and their cunthead of a leader, Steve Fielding, stand for. The reason Labor are doing this is because they are worried about the Green vote in a few inner city seats but surely they should realise that giving FF their preferences will only make leftwing people vote primarily for the Green Party?

So, I emailed the ALP today and said I want to put my membership on hold. I simply will not donate a single cent or minute to any cause that may end up benefiting the very people who I think are so damaging to our society.

If the ALP does decide to give FF its preferences it will be a very very sorry day and an utter betrayal of their principals, its members and the hundreds of thousands of people who vote for them.

I await their decision with interest.