What I've been reading and writing - a bit of a catch-up

This is a catch-up of my reading and writing lists as auto-compiled into e-zines by Paper.li. As usual, it is mostly for my own reference down the track, but maybe someone is interested.

The recycling bin may no longer be full of discarded newspapers, but holy moley I'm chewing through some online reading...

Editions for the week ending:

1 October

24 September

17 September

10 September

3 September

27 August

20 August

13 August

6 August

30 July

23 July

16 July

9 July

Phew. That's it. Must keep on top of this a bit better...

Ringleader of anti-Muslim protests outs himself as a twit

For Gungahlin folk who've been wondering about the so-called "Concerned Citizens of Canberra" and their dog-whistle objections against the mosque to be built in our town centre, this interview with the ringleader on 2CC today is essential listening.

I think Mike Welsh tried really hard to be fair, but this guy is pathetic, and his own worst enemy.

Listen for yourself:

http://www.2cc.net.au/mp3/MW-Irwin-Ross-Gungahlin-Mosque.mp3

Opposition to the Muslim church in Gungahlin is being led by Christian evangelists with links to the US.

The letter circulated in Gungahlin, via www.the-riotact.com 

I can’t believe we are here again, with yet another protest action against the proposal by the Canberra Muslim Community to build a church in the Gungahlin district.

Except of course I can believe it. Nay - I fully expected it once the development application went in. But that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

What is even more disappointing though is to find that it seems to be led by a so-called "Christian" pastor who is practising here in Canberra.


Canberra Times journalist Lisa Cox (to her great credit) has been working all week to try to get to the bottom of who the organisers are. She has identified this pastor as Irwin Ross - who doesn't even live in Gungahlin. He's from the Belconnen area. And he identifies himself as belonging to Olive Tree Ministries - a Jewish-Christian evangelist group based in the USA.


Cox has also reported that in the same week these objections were circulated in Gungahlin, other anti-Islamic leaflets were also circulated in Canberra. These ones were produced by "Chick Publications" - another USA evangelist organisation that is blatantly pushing anti-Islamic propaganda.


Despite these extremely concerning revelations, let's consider whether the opponents have any valid points in their claims against the Gungahlin mosque - a church by another name, and in a street where two other churches have already even approved (one built so far):

Gloria Jeans financially backs homophobia - join the boycott

How is it that one can not have previously known that the owners of Gloria Jeans have been supporting the so-called Australian Christian Lobby - a lobbying front with an almost exclusively anti-gay campaign platform?

Well I didn't, but this blog expose has righted that.

Until now, Gloria Jeans has been a last port of call due to their bland washed-out coffee. But this seals it for me.

I encourage people of similar thoughts to also put their online support behind the Facebook group Boycott Gloria Jeans and to let others know. They may be as oblivious as I was.

Also this podcast may be of interest - puts the franchisees' perspective.

The horror of Kabul bombings captured in this graphic photo awarded Pulitzer Prize

The photo that won this year's Pulitzer Prize for Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse news agency is truly horrible and gut wrenching. You cannot help but put yourself in the picture.

And that's probably the point of giving the award to this photographer and photo. It captures the horror of guerilla warfare and terrorism in a way that can't help but ram home the message - this is something that has to stop. Hossaini describes the context:

Woody Allen Jesus - the Tim Minchin song that got cut from a UK chat show

Skulking down the bottom of the Inbox was this gem of a song by the windswept and mascaraed one Tim Minchin.

He gave them exactly what should be expected of him at Christmas time. And it's funny. But the BBC cut it from the show.



Let Minchin explain himself over on his blog.

This is an encouraging shift - Saudi to field female Olympians

So it seems the London Olympics will be the first for which all countries will have females on their teams.

The Canberra Times is reporting that Qatar, Brunei, and late to the party Saudi Arabia, will all field female teams. Given that the Saudi government has reportedly been getting stricter about public appearances of women, could this be a turning point?

Rockets, robots, reactors, rainbows. It's an R-mazing collection in this week's The Beach House Weekly Wrap

What I've been reading and writing for the week to 18 February 2012.
All wrapped up in a neat little magazine. Who needs the Weekend Australian?

Is your religion any less weird than theirs?

In the Sunday Times, Michael Ruffles discussed the recent allegations by independent Senator Nick Xenophon about possible criminal activities in the Church of Scientology.

Ruffles, while defending Scientologists' right to believe whatever they wanted to, clearly thought the core beliefs of that church were a little ... questionable.

Apparently they believe someone called Xenu from some master alien race solved a galaxial over-population problem by shipping a few trillion 'people' to Earth so he could dump them into volcanoes. It seems they don't have volcanoes ANY where else in our galaxy... And here I realise that I am too ridiculing their beliefs. (Occurs to me that perhaps Xenophon's concerns stem from embarrassment that they are eroding the reputation of anyone whose name starts with X - a pretty elite group to be sure).