It's all about jobs. You're fired!

No matter which party is in opposition they all accuse the government of blowing out the public sector and they all plan to rein in government spending by reducing the size of the public service

It's interesting in the current climate the federal opposition and the Queensland opposition (since they're coming up for an election) are campaigning against rising unemployment wanting to know what the government is doing to create jobs while their plan to reign in spending is slashing jobs.

This is how the Liberals can think cutting taxes increases revenue

VATICAN ENDORSES EVOLUTION

In a blow to intelligent design and creationism, the Vatican's cultural secretary Archbishop Ravasi argued that biological evolution and a christian view of creation were not incompatible.

In 1996 Pope John Paul II had said that evolution was more then a mere hypothesis, but intelligent design proponents had seized on statements by Benedict XVI that referred to a "intelligent project". But it was for naught. Intelligent design was almost banned from a papal backed conference marking the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species, as "poor science, poor theology". It was eventually allowed to be discussed at the fringes of the event as a "cultural phenomenon" but not as a scientific or theological issue.

The Vatican is claiming that they have never formally condemned evolution. They are also claiming that a 4th century saint, Augustine of Hippo and a middle age saint, Aquinas had made observations that life seemed to be transitory, transforming slowly over time.

Even the Church of England has waded in.

What is extraordinary is that Darwin was surrounded by the influence of the Church his entire life. Having attended one of the best Church of England boarding schools in the country in Shrewsbury, he trained to be a clergyman in Cambridge; was inspired to follow his calling into science by another clergyman who lived and breathed botany; and married into a staunch Anglican family

It's strange but for once the Catholic church is not the weird religious nuts desperately clinging to and out dated mode of belief.

Fetch

Dogs force teenager to overdose on drugs!

That's right. According to NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale and other campaigners, the presence of sniffer dogs at the Big Day Out caused a 17-year old teenager to overdose and die.

The girl had taken three ecstasy tablets to the concert, panicked when she saw the dogs and swallowed all three tablets at once to escape detection. Hale has been warning governments for years that this might happen.

“The heavy presence of police and sniffer dogs only will only serve to alienate and intimidate concert goers.

“The bulk of people accosted by the dogs will be young people intent on enjoying themselves who will be needlessly harassed, frightened and humiliated.

So a teenage girl goes to an major event, once that due to problems in the past will be heavily policed, carrying illegal and deadly substances. Once there she sees the cops and dogs and decides to get rid of the incriminating evidence. Instead of dropping the tablets to the ground, dumping them in a toilet/rubbish bin, or even handing them to police and claiming she found them, she swallows them.

But it's not her fault. It's the big mean police man and his vicious dogs that are to blame.

Doesn't anyone have to take responsibility for their actions any more? I'll tell why this girl died, because she was an idiot. She broke the law, did the most incredibly stupid thing in her life to escape responsibility for breaking the law in the first place and lost her life. Tragic, but still the fault lies entirely with the girl, not the police.

Can you imagine how many more overdoes there would be if police weren't at these events? Drug dealers would have a field day. People who don't take drugs to these events due to fear of being caught, would take them. The number of young people hyped up on drugs would escalate and bring with it the social ramifications that it entails.

Hale and associates would be better off campaigning against drugs then against police measures to reduce drug use if they were serious about saving lives.

NSW is rising the minimum school leaving age to 17. Students will be required to complete their school certificate and unless they have under taken vocational training programs (read apprenticeships) their higher school certificate.

Now the government's logic is that research shows that people with a better education they're more likely to be employed, earn a better income and has additional health benefits.

I think the government's logic is flawed. That stuff is only true because of the type of people who choose to remain in school are usually the sort who will go and look for work, rather then just live on the dole. People who actively look for work will usually have a higher income and people who are employed and with more money can afford better medical treatment.

Making people who do not want to be in school to remain there does not mean that these benefits somehow flow into them by osmosis. In fact it will have the opposite effect to what the government wnats to acheive. What it will do will be to lower the marking average of the HSC and school certificate. A few years from now people will be whinging about how hard the HSC is because a large majority of students are struggling. The SC and HSC will be revised (dumbed down) to enusre that students have the best chance to enter into uni

And because they won't increase uni placements, the marks needed for uni will keep going up and the HSC will contiune to be readvised.

I'm reminded of futurama. I'm a college drop out. Not now, you're only the equailvent of a high school drop out.

Superman v Doomsday

Found this little gem in the bargain during the post Xmas sales and just sat down to watch it (found a few gems over Xmas). At first I thought it was a movie length episode from the Superman animated series of the late 90s early 00s but upon placing it in the dvd player found it was an orginal animated movie along the lines of The New Frontier.

It was released in 2007. And it was is the best Superman movie I've seen.

It's dark, gritty. It is brutal at times. But the movie is well paced and explores the characters of Superman, Lois, Jimmy, Luthor nicely.

Despite the title, only the first act involves Doomsday, Acts 2 and 3 deal with the loss of Superman and his inevitable return.

Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly) is the voice of Superman and James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) is Luthor. One of the best portrayals of Luthor to date - cold and sociopathic.

So if you like comics, or enjoy the Batman/Superman/Justice League cartoons or dark and stark cartoons then I highly recommend this one.

I'll leave you this little treat, the opening lines from the movie spoken by Luthor:

Just look at him. So sleek. So powerful. So... beautiful, like some great golden god made flesh. Of course, any sensible god would demand absolute obedience in return for his favor. But, no, our Man of Steel protects us, with no strings attached. The people? Hmph. They practically worship him anyway. Enjoy your reign while you may, Superman. For surely as night follows day, there comes a time when even gods must die.

Congress asked to pay for sex

Well, it's official. Now every industry in the US has asked congress for a multi-million dollar bailout.

The porn moguls (Flynt and Francis) both admit that their industry is no fear of collapse but they feel entitled to money anyway.

They cite figures that show dvd and video sales are down, while internet downloading is up - but it's a sign that "sex is the furthest thing from people's minds" due to "economic misery". Has nothing to do with the fact that people may want to avoid looking like perverts by walking into a adult store, when they could (and probably at less cost) download in the privacy of their own homes (if they still have their own homes).

Flynt says that "Americans can do without cars and such, but they cannot do without sex." Hang on, aren't cars and sex linked. I mean, without cars how else will millions of Amercian teenagers lose their virginity? Especially now that their parent's have lost the family home and their all sleeping in the same single room caravan (trailer)?