In which the pond, prompted by a Donnelly, indulges in a secular rant ...

Social media is supposed to swoop like a murmuration of starlings or a dissimulation of birds (get your own cheap, easy to use group name here), but that would be like shooting a raft of ducks in a barrel ...

The ABS was a train wreck almost certain to happen, and any pleading that the site was brought down by alien forces will simply reinforce the notion that the ABS wasn't up to the job, and certainly can't provide ongoing protection for the data, and might in any case decide it can find useful further uses for the data.

Long ago the pond had unsatisfactory dealings with the ABS, how sweet it tastes to think of the cold, humble porridge they must now eat  ...

It's also a reminder of just how primitive things are online in this allegedly innovative and agile nation.

Is it any wonder the pond hears that senior bureaucrats must adopt the KISS principle when preparing cabinet submissions, because one cabinet member doesn't like big words and doesn't like being shown to be stupid, though he undoubtedly he is, in his own ineffable way (the pond slipped that in, in the knowledge that the ineffable member would find the word obscure).

But enough of Tamworth and the ABS, because the pond has unfinished business from yesterday, and as usual, it involves a Donnelly ...

The Donnelly is the sort of bird whose name would have made a great joke on The Goodies ... who could forget the Bellamy episode and the Bellamburger? Could a Donnellburger be far behind?

But enough of childish humour because we have a religion to demonise, while letting other religions get away scot-free (damn you Scott, get busy).

Yes, that's exactly the sort of Daily Terror splash designed to raise the pond's hackles and send it into a foaming frenzy.

Why do all Terrorist pieces start "Why are feminists ignoring ..." ?

Add what you like to that question. Feminists tend to ignore sex trafficking, the weight of their children, the suffering of men, complimentary women served up by angry Sydney Anglicans, nuns, Buddhists, Daily Terrorists and almost any other matter featured in the culture wars...

In fact, the pond long ago realised that liberal feminism was in complete denial, and an important consequence of this sort of mamby pamby denialism was that they couldn't call columnists for the Terror out as being complete and utter fuckwits ...

Well a few do, and good on them ... but of course their punishment is relentless humiliation and bile of the kind dished out to women for daring to remake Ghostbusters ...

Meanwhile, it was that other splash about "western values" that confirmed the pond was on a roll.

Sure enough it turned out to be a Donnelly. Oh Donnelly, oh Donnelly ...

Ah yes, once again it's the cultural left that's at fault.

Well here's an idea. The pond doesn't identify with the cultural left, whatever that delusional condition might be, but it does have an idea of certain Western values, and they don't happen to include the usual crap about sports ... (gotta keep this an Olympics-free zone, or be seen to be endorsing an activity hopelessly corrupted by drugs).

Rather they spring from the secularist and atheistic stance of the good old French revolutionaries, luckily before the guillotine really kicked into gear.

So where would this leave Donnelly and the tykes who ruined the chance of a secular education for a good number of students, thanks to their desire to run indoctrination schools of their own, preaching Roman values, and better, persuaded the federal government to fund the folly?

If you're going to demonise anyone, why do it to just two and a half per cent of the population (or thereabouts, thanks to the ABS, who will have a clue?)

Why not look at your own tribe? Or associated tribes ...

Well yes, and just around the corner from the pond the federal government funds a scientological school suffused with the thoughts of L Ron, who really did know that the way to make a good deal of cash was to invent a religion ...

And we can see how fundamentalists have seized on the fatal flaw in the system set up by the Catholics and the Anglicans ... so that pasty Hasties can go about their furtive business teaching all sorts of denialism ...

There's a lot more in Maddox's piece here, and a bit of googling will lead to many more pieces about the way fundamentalist religions of all kinds - and their schools - are being funded by the federal government.

The stench of hypocrisy emanating from a Donnelly - who thinks it's okay to teach kids mystical nonsense about transubstantiation on the government dime but gets agitated when Islamics teach their own brand of imaginary friend nonsense - is almost too much for this secularist to bear ... but bear it we must ...

What's the bet only one figure will be used to illustrate the problem,  and only one faith?

So much horsehit, and in such undiluted quantities.

Why is it that when it comes to the perceived enemy of Islam, we always cop talk of individual liberty and freedom, yet when it comes to gay rights and SSM, the tykes are up on the barricades standing shoulder to shoulder with the Islamics ...

And where's some blather about the creationism being taught by fundamentalist Christians being funded by government? Thus enabling them to preach their restrictive and narrow religious beliefs? Heck, worse still, being voted into the Liberal government so that they might ensure the pork-barrelling continues ...

Well, the pond once attended a Catholic indoctrination centre, and isn't bitter, though the memories still linger ... but as a result, it has become a proud secularist, who can spot sectarian bigotry from a mile, or even a kilometre off ...

Get all religion out of schools, end the chaplain program, get someone else to write about it for the Daily Terror ... someone without a nakedly obvious agenda, scribbling from their Catholic University sanctuary ...

Oh and incidentally ...

ACU is public not-for-profit university funded by the Australian Government. (here)

And so?

Grounded in the principles of the Catholic intellectual tradition, ACU seeks to bring about positive changes in local and global communities.

The long absent lord and French secularism wept ...

And so to a couple of jokes, so that the pond might at least have a hearty secularist laugh ...

Ah the water in the copper outside the pond's house. And where is the NBN? It certainly ain't The Optus The ...

Thank the long absent lord someone has noticed, and more insightful Popery here ...

And while you're at it, you can find more Rowe here ...