Sacked For Being A Christian

[thebirdman]

As for the compromise of putting crucifixes on collars tips of the pious.

Hypothetical - I arrive at Heathrow after a 24 hour flight from Sydney. I turn on my mobile phone and there are several missed calls. When I call I find out there has been a family tragedy. In this situation I may want some spiritual guidance.

So, I go looking for the airport chaplin. I know from my dealings with my sailors mission at home, that all their chaplins had crucifixes on their collar tips.

So in the emotional state, you can imagine, I'm in by now I go looking for someone with in a uniform with crucifixes on their collar tips.

I see the check-in counter and I see young Nadia with her brand new crucifixes attatched to her collar tips and, because of the state I'm in, go barging up to her counter. From here on in I let you put in your un-happy ending.

 

[wolfix]

Excellent....... This could be applied to most "coffee shop" groupies here in the states.....

 

[limerickman]

How are things in Darwin, BM? I used to have a yacht in the harbour there, just out from the Wharf. Darwin's one of my favourite places, but I haven't been there since the mid-90's. It may have changed since then, but I would hope not too much.

Any chance of your being home in Perth, for the 3rd killing - sorry 3rd Ashes Test ?

 

[davidmc]

here's an interesting link indicating that there was a kingdom of israel in @ 900-700 B.C.
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

 

[EoinC]

Any chance of your being home in Perth, for the 3rd killing - sorry 3rd Ashes Test ?

I think I get back down there on 16th December. She-who-must-be-obeyed has about 4 years worth of jobs lined up for me to do in 4 weeks. When is it on? I don't get to watch TV, cos' I have daughters who absolutely have to watch The Simpsons, or Aussie Idle, everytime I get a spare minute.

 

[limerickman]

I think I get back down there on 16th December. She-who-must-be-obeyed has about 4 years worth of jobs lined up for me to do in 4 weeks. When is it on? I don't get to watch TV, cos' I have daughters who absolutely have to watch The Simpsons, or Aussie Idle, everytime I get a spare minute.

Starts Thursday 15th Dec.
Perth used be the fast bowlers paradise (Lillee, Thompson, Holding, Roberts).
I believe that these days it's a featherbed.

At least Homer Simpson puts up more than a fight than Fred Flintoff!

 

[EoinC]

...Perth used be the fast bowlers paradise...

I know I'll be bowling over a few Emu Bitters when I get home, and they'll probably go down pretty fast - just hope they don't bounce.

 

[Carrera]

The trouble with this country (as opposed to France, for example) is the masses have lost their bark. You always hear people making excuses to justify lack of employment protection. The majority of people are also willing to carry I.D. cards and compromise rights other democracies seem to enjoy.
Hell, even the Americans don't have to carry I.D. cards with them do they? Or if they did, I'll bet there would be some kind of opposition.
It doesn't particularly matter to me whether Nadia Edwina is protesting over a cross or some other issue. The fact is, at least she's making her stand and refusing to sell herself short as a doormat.
I think if people really knew how to make a stand in this country we'd all be paying less taxes, enjoy a free education and the war in Iraq probably wouldn't have taken place.
In between the sixties and modern times I think something has gone wrong if you compare the way people would protest back in those days (say over Vietnam). This is a view I tend to hear time and time again from Europeans who see people over here as being too docile and passive.
France has only just been up in arms over a sacked cleaner and even tear gas doesn't stop them going out and getting stuff done.

Both of my daughters attend schools which do not allow jewelry to be worn whilst on school premises. I have no problem with that. If we, as a family, found such a rule to be unconscionable, we would endeavour to have our daughters attend acceptable alternatives.
I don't know anything about Jamie Dermain's case, nor when she became a BA employee but, were she a pupil at either of my daughters' schools, she would not have been allowed to wear jewelry either.

 

[Carrera]

The song is a bit corny. I think it was a bit of fun - not meant to be taken too seriously.
I do know John Denver always seemed very in touch with nature and it comes across in his music. If he's not singing about the Rocky Mountains, he's dedicating songs to Alaska, dolphins and Mother Nature.
He probably would have liked the Bush in Australia (not George Bush ) and the natural beauty of the place. I think he'd have gotten on very well with Steve Erwin, to be honest.
Shame he died in a plane crash. It must have been post Croc Dundee as th film is mentioned in this song.

I hope you realise how grating this song, has become, to some of us Australians. I know John Denver wrote this when he found and fell in love with a Australian woman and discovered many things Australian, and I actually liked the song when it first came out, buuut?

More often than not the person playing the Yidaki (didgeridoo) is some white fella, trying in vane to get in touch with his inner nomad, but whos' closest contact with mother earth would be the carrots in the green grocery section of his local hyper market and who is out of his comfort zone with out his latte every morning, who would cross the road if a person of Aboriginal decent approached him, could not survive without his mobile/cell phone attached to his ear and thinks dolphins are some sort of spirit being.

The only people to call you maaate in Oz are used car salesmen, politicians with promoting the patriotism of scoudrals and no policies or somebody who wants you to do something they know you will not do willingly.

Mate is a word that has very honourable origins but like so many of those sort of words it has been 'jingoised', trivialised and demeaned to the point that the word now triggers bullshyt detection radars into action.

And don't call anyone 'blue' unless they are a red head or extremely sad.

 

[EoinC]

...It doesn't particularly matter to me whether Nadia Edwina is protesting over a cross or some other issue...

...or even whether she is correct? Any protest is good protest?

 

[EoinC]

The trouble with this country...

It's your Country, so if you don't like it, it's incumbent on you to fix it. If you don't consider that to be possible, an invading occupation force could be arranged...

 

[Carrera]

It seems fairly obvious to me. Things in this country have deteriorated for 2 reasons.
(1) We tend to be stuck with Governments who don't relate to the people they represent. Blair is essentially a toff who was was funded through higher education all his life and Cameron is a bit of a joke. Cameron also went through elite education but we now see him trying to pretend to be hip and cool. Neither of these people has much of a clue how the average person lives.
(2) The "masses" have also become like sheep. Every time Blair and co make some reform to set back democracy, labour laws or tread on the working classes, too many people just sit back and let it all happen.
Take the I.D. cards. This is really all an excuse and has nothing to do with terrorism and has been shown it wouldn't prevent terrorism. Yet, only a minute percentage of people seems willing to make a stand on that issue alone.
Education was another example. When Blair cut the free education system there wasn't a murmur from students, no protests - zilch. Now we hear China is producing many millions of science graduates and, not only that. China has just overtaken the U.K. economically. Meantime, in the U.K, we are producing tiny numbers of science graduates in comparison with India and China.
Why is that? Because elitist Blair has done away with the free education system and simply can't compete against countries that invest in their own people. Blair preferred to spend billions of dollars interfering in Iraq and allying himself with a right-wing U.S. President.
Now, here is my point: Where would be now if students had made waves over the termination of free education which we used to have even under the Tories? Well, we'd certainly have more science grads to compete in the future and stay in front economically. That would mean a better economy in the long term e.t.c.
Added to that, most people will probably agree democracy is about power being with the people not a bunch of elite politicians. That's the point I'm making about the need to push your rights to the forefront.

...or even whether she is correct? Any protest is good protest?

 

[EoinC]

It seems fairly obvious to me...

Don't you have elections over there?

 

[Carrera]

The 2 parties are virtually identical and, so far, there are no populist parties that represent peoples' actual interests. I think Blair merely represents the interests of corporations and elements within the U.S.A.
We could do with some kind of Fidel Castro without the communism.

Don't you have elections over there?

 

[EoinC]

The 2 parties are virtually identical and, so far, there are no populist parties that represent peoples' actual interests...

And it's illegal to start another Party? It is over here, people suffer nasty things for trying to do so. The reason it doesn't happen in the UK is that you are comfortable. You aren't starving, therefore,the best you can do is to grumble about how bad it is. If you (that is the collective "you") aren't going to do anything about it, why should we (another collective) take what you say seriously?
Revolution doesn't happen when people are well fed and secure. Fidel could do nothing with you. When the call goes up for revolution in the UK, the answer will be, "Not tonight, Neighbours is on the tellie."

 

[Carrera]

I agree things would have to get a lot worse before any seeds of revolution start to sprout. However, some warning signs can be seen today.
In Tsarist Russia, the Bolsheviks and Lenin grew strong as a result of WW1 and the general downtrodding of the masses under the Tsar. When it happened (the revolution), it even caught Lenin by surprise as Lenin had figured revolution would begin in Germany and not Russia.
As you say, though, a lot depends on how long job security holds out. The time to worry is if you start to see mass unemployment and erosion of living standards which hasn't happened yet.
By the way, I happen to have a collection of items from that period. I have several coins of Tsar Nicholas and then the Bolshevik coins and medals that came after this in 1917. It's weird to imagine those coins I have would have belonged to people who lived through those revolutions.

And it's illegal to start another Party? It is over here, people suffer nasty things for trying to do so. The reason it doesn't happen in the UK is that you are comfortable. You aren't starving, therefore,the best you can do is to grumble about how bad it is. If you (that is the collective "you") aren't going to do anything about it, why should we (another collective) take what you say seriously?
Revolution doesn't happen when people are well fed and secure. Fidel could do nothing with you. When the call goes up for revolution in the UK, the answer will be, "Not tonight, Neighbours is on the tellie."

 

[limerickman]

And it's illegal to start another Party? It is over here, people suffer nasty things for trying to do so. The reason it doesn't happen in the UK is that you are comfortable. You aren't starving, therefore,the best you can do is to grumble about how bad it is. If you (that is the collective "you") aren't going to do anything about it, why should we (another collective) take what you say seriously?
Revolution doesn't happen when people are well fed and secure. Fidel could do nothing with you. When the call goes up for revolution in the UK, the answer will be, "Not tonight, Neighbours is on the tellie."

Complacency.

I think we're all guilty of that - we complain about "what's not right" but how many of us actaully try to do something to change "what's not right" ?

 

[davidmc]

And it's illegal to start another Party? It is over here, people suffer nasty things for trying to do so. The reason it doesn't happen in the UK is that you are comfortable. You aren't starving, therefore,the best you can do is to grumble about how bad it is. If you (that is the collective "you") aren't going to do anything about it, why should we (another collective) take what you say seriously?
Revolution doesn't happen when people are well fed and secure. Fidel could do nothing with you. When the call goes up for revolution in the UK, the answer will be, "Not tonight, Neighbours is on the tellie."

Bwa ha ha ha ha Good one EoinC

 

[davidmc]

I think Blair merely represents the interests of corporations and elements within the U.S.A.

Yea, so... Only joking I am a progressive (read-"left") independent & I still beleive that invading Iraq to ouster the, ahem..."dictator for life" was the lawful thing to do. Granted, the odd's of successfully transitioning a middle-eastern country to democracy are zilch to none, one will not know if it can be done til one tries. If it doesn't work then I say-let them stay in the 6th cen. a.d.& the rest of the civilized world will move onward's. That would not be good for the citizens/subjects of those countries, no Security Council Resolutions mean something, no Thus, they require enforcement or else the U.n. should be disbanded. Need I bring up the oil-for-food scandal and the complicity of certain elements within ALL countries concerned not to mention Kofi Annon's son war-profiteering in this regard War-profiteering is bad, right

 

[EoinC]

Yea, so... Only joking I am a progressive (read-"left") independent & I still beleive that invading Iraq to ouster the, ahem..."dictator for life" was the lawful thing to do...

Lawful? How are the inhabitants of a Nation that is now sans Law supposed to view that? When did a coallition form to remove other "Dictatator(s) for life" (sounds like a gospel group)? Pinochet? Kim Il Sung? Son-of-Kim? Pol Pot? Ceausescu? Ne Win? etc, etc.

...Granted, the odd's of successfully transitioning a middle-eastern country to democracy are zilch to none, one will not know if it can be done til one tries. If it doesn't work then I say-let them stay in the 6th cen. a.d.& the rest of the civilized world will move onward's. That would not be good for the citizens/subjects of those countries, no ...

Aren't you supposed to get FDA approval before you start experimenting on human subjects? Aren't the subjects meant to be willing? Aren't the subjects meant to be warned of possible side-effects? Oh, that's right - we were 'saving' them, so those kind of ethics don't apply.

...Security Council Resolutions mean something, no Thus, they require enforcement or else the U.n. should be disbanded. Need I bring up the oil-for-food scandal and the complicity of certain elements within ALL countries concerned not to mention Kofi Annon's son war-profiteering in this regard War-profiteering is bad, right

So, did we invade the Nations that broke the sanctions? Halliburton et al could not possibly be considered to be War-profiteering, could they? Politicians who remain in power (and pocket) could not possibly be considered to be War-profiteering when they call on patriotic fervour to quell any dissent, could they? Last I heard, Saddam was locked up quite some time ago, yet I don't see that the people of Iraq have received much benefit so far? Please forgive my scepticism - it just keeps raising its ugly head when I least expect it...