Topical haiku

John Winston Howard,
our noble prime minister,
is a heartless cunt

Dogs of all kinds

After the problems in NSW with dogs attacking children the government is going to ban the possession, importation and breeding of certain breeds.

As someone who has never been comfortable around dogs I say, hurrah. I must admit that the main problem most of the time is not with the dog, but with the owner. Too many people obtain dogs which they are ill-fitted for owning; no idea of discipline or control. And then when someone like me gets a bit nervous they say, "Don't worry, he's fine, he's just being friendly", or some such banal nonsense, without any idea what terror this animal is creating.

That's minor compared to the damage these animals wreak on children and often other dogs. There must be some responsibility taken by people and not just for their dogs. Responsibility is a dirty word these days, just look at those lying, buffoons in Canberra...

Dave at Fulmination has expressed some of my feelings precisely about fundamentalists. The hypocrisy of some of these people is breathtaking.

Looking at his profile I see that we have some favourite films in common. Does a similar view of the world also rub off in taste? I wonder.

Gambling

I just don't get gambling. Particularly the mindless sort which involves feeding coins into a machine and pressing a button/pulling a lever in the vain hope that a winning combination will result. Having studied mathematics I have some understanding, if only slight, of probability, and this has led me to the conclusion that there is only ever one winner - the house.

When lotto first started I used to take the odd ticket, occasionally going in with friends, but I stopped that after a year or so and now I don't even buy raffle tickets unless I approve of the charity involved. My view is that if I'm going to spend money on an unknown I'd rather it be a meal, a bottle of wine, a book, a film, a CD... My experience so far has been that while I rarely have a fantastic experience with these, I also rarely have an abysmal one. Mostly I'm very satisfied; occasionally there's something I'll buy which I conclude is overpriced, but generally the payoff is satisfying.

However the same does not apply to gambling: lotto, scratchies, pokies, etc all involve such long shots that you are effectively throwing your money down the drain. At least with horseracing or football tipping one horse or team has to win; the odds are at least reasonable. Odds of millions-to-one are just ridiculous.

What really shits me is how all Australian governments make huge amounts of money from gambling, and usually from people who can least afford it. Problem gamblers usually end ruining their lives, their family's lives and sometimes take down others as well. For governments to live off these earnings is, in my mind, totally immoral. Even cigarettes have warning labels; there are no such things in Tabarets or casinos.

A beginning

The events of the past week have prompted me to start this blog. The death of a man responsible for so much death and unhappiness has been celebrated all around the world. There have, however, been a number of dissenting voices and I want mine to be one of them.

The Catholic church is essential a homosexual (perhaps homosocial) organisation, run by men, for men. For all JP2's work for peace and equality there is at least half the population who have suffered, women. By refusing women the power to manage their own bodies it has condemned them (those who follow the church at least but also those who may not, but live in catholic countries) to lives of second-rate citizens. And the refusal to recognise same-sex relationships is also part of this.

Surely Christ taught about love and forgiveness. It seems to me that most churches today focus on the teachings of the old testament; all the contradictory laws spattered through it give the churches a grab-bag of reasons for suppressing almost anyone. But these laws are not applied consistently: Leviticus is used against gay men, but many other restrictions in Leviticus (such as those against wearing mixed fabrics, eating various foods) are totally ignored.

But it's the hypocrisy of so many churches and governments about abortion and contraception that angers me. Use abstinence, they say. Sex is beautiful (what would celibate priests know -- for many of them, too much) they say, but only when you're married, and only for procreation. Oh, yes, if you're married you can do it for enjoyment, but you still can't use contraception. What? And if you're interested in people of the same sex -- forget it. You will burn in hell.

Love and forgiveness, guys, that was Christ's message. Love. Love thy neighbour as thyself. I don't think I'm being naive by interpreting this as: everyone, absolutely everyone, is worthy of being treated with respect, no matter who they are, what colour their skin, whatever their creed (or lack of it), whatever they do (as long as they in turn respect others).

This, to me, is a great philosophy, but unfortunately, I don't think I know any church which actually practises it. Oh, perhaps the Quakers. Certainly none of those poisonous evangelical movements, and certainly not the catholics.

Enough. I will post more at a later date.