Baggas’ Blog

Just been reading Brian McLaren’s newest book, Finding Our Way Again, which is the introductory book in a series on ancient Christian practices. Upcoming volumes include books on prayer, tithing, litrugy, and one on fasting from Scot McKnight. The focus of this book, and I imagine the whole series, is for Christians today to mine the riches of 2000 years of Christian tradition, and how this can assist their spiritual development and engagement with the world.

McLaren comments that “Christianity is beginning to go open-source” with increasing numbers of Jesus followers willing to fuse beliefs and practises from a range of different Christian traditions both recent and ancient, and often using quite technologically innovative and cutting edge methodology in the process. All of this is quite cool, and is the reason I’m reading this sort of book in the first place.

The problem for McLaren is that he is possibly casting his “open source” net a little too wide, or at least giving the appearance of doing so in this book. For a long time in his books McLaren has liked to push the envelope a little, often winding up in hot water with the conservative establishment, who question his commitment to Christian orthodoxy. In general these crticisms are often a little extreme and unfounded, if you are willing to read his books with the degree of nuance with which they are written. Nothing wrong with pushing the boundaries if it gets you thinking and ultimately results in a more generous Biblical faith. Yet in this book McLaren seems to be going out of his way to trumpet the similarities between the three great “Abrahamic faiths” of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Once again, nothing wrong with a healthy respect for other religious faiths, but in a book ostensibly aimed at a Christian audience McLaren’s bending over backwards to be inclusive to alternate faiths is bound to cause trouble. In one section he seems to imply that the Muslim deen and Jewish Torah are somehow valid paths to peace wisdom and joy, along with the gospel. It makes me want to yell at the guy “Brian, why? Why potentially get yourself in trouble with your core audience making such statements when in reality very few (if any) Jews and Muslims are going to be reading this book?” I still respect McLaren and think he has a lot of valuable insights, but it’s frustrating when he makes vaguely dubious and totally unnecessary statements like this which risk any mainstream Christian cred that he has left. Brian may reply that that’s exactly the point - he shouldn’t be pandering or “preaching to the choir” - but the fact is he would be taken more seriously and possibly reach a wider audience if he was a little more careful about making statements that could be seen as being overly provocative, open to misinterpretation, or verging on the heretical.

These frustrations aside (and they are very frustrating for me, as I still rate McLaren pretty highly in terms of what he has to offer) the bulk of this book is good stuff. McLaren examines church history and the current landscape and warns us to guard against overly formulaic approaches to religion that all to commonly creep in. He reviews the cycle of renewal, domestication, and stagnation that has all too commonly been the story of most groups within the church.

Rather than getting too specific on particular spiritual disciplines or practices McLaren looks more generally at pursuing a humbler, more holistic approach to spirituality, integrating not only specific spiritual disciplines and practices of today and yesteryear, but also ultimately a sanctification of the things we do from day to day. This approach he refers to as “faithing our practices” instead of simply “practicing our faith.” And as a broad roadmap to keep in mind, McLaren examines the ancient idea of the threefold path of purgation, illumination and unity with God (or Katharsis, Fotosis, and Theosis in the Eastern church).

Overall this is one of McLaren’s better books in recent years, and despite my few frustrations overall I found it very stimulating. Even though I have only just finished it I’m very tempted to turn back to the beginning and start again. McLaren remains one of the most original, easy to read, and challenging Christian writers today. I just wish he would be a little more careful to avoid unnecessary controversy and thus allow his valuable insights to be taken more seriously by a larger audience.

The focus of the world is on sport over the next fortnight, and the best international sport not being featured in Beijing would have to be cricket. I’m not a huge sports fan but I have always been a lover of cricket. Cricket is huge in Australia, and heroes like the great Don Bradman are honoured like saints… but perhaps cricket is even more saintly than we imagined…

According to an ancient Armenian manuscript, Jesus may have played a form of cricket as a child on the shores of the sea of Galilee. Check out this fascinating story from The Age. It seems Jesus had an unfair advantage in this form of beach cricket though, with his ability to walk on water! Cool.

In California, a House Divided Stands Strong - NYTimes.com

This is a cool story. The California Governor’s mansion lawn has a mixture of signs supporting John McCain and Barack Obama as Gov Arnold Swartzenegger and his Kennedy family wife Maria Shriver back the respective candidates.

Nice to see that a family like this can have differing political alleigances without it being nasty. But hard to imagine this sort of situation popping up too often. Can you imagine if Kevin Rudd’s wife was openly supporting the Liberal party? Or if Laura Bush showed up at an Obama campaign rally? An article worth reading. I quite admire Arnie’s attitude in the interview.

• The Exigent City - this is a fascinating in-depth article from the New York Times on the history, sociology and architecture of refugee camps around the world. They also have a good article on the groth of new cities.
• Ben Witherington writes an excellent post on God’s freedom, love, and human free-will. I’ve been pondering some of these issues lately so this is very timely.
• On the US election, this article compares the online presence of Obama and McCain, and this article looks at McCain’s strategy in searching for a Vice President - Google!
• Apple News from the WWDC conference. A better, cheaper iPhone with 3G and GPS, coming to Australia soon (wonder how long I will be able to resist?). An upgraded .Mac service (no trouble resisting that) and a new Mac OSX ‘Snow Leopard’ next year. Read a summary of some of the buzz here. My only disappointment is that I was hoping to see an upgraded version of the MacBook Air with more storage and RAM - guess I’ll keep waiting for that one… until the next Stevenote..

On the Trail, One Aide Looms Over Obama - NYTimes.com

For a young, single, athletic, educated guy, this would have to be one of the best jobs in the world. This story from the NYT looks at Reggie Love, 26 year old personal aide to Barack Obama. If you’re a West Wing fan think of Charlie and you’ll get a rough idea of this guy’s job - assistant, friend, training partner. Better yet, read the article.

And not only does he have a cool job but he’s got a pretty funky name - Reggie Love.  Speaking of cool names, another good one I heard last week is the Australian Indy car driver Will Power. I once worked with a doctor who’s surname was Power - now that’s a name you can get creative with. I think if it were me I’d name one son William and the other Max. Anyone else got any naming suggestions for the Power family??

Time to rethink baby bonus | The Australian

It’s ironic that the Labor party has usually been portrayed as the pro-welfare, more socialist party in Australia, yet now we are seeing a raft of stories about various welfare payments that are being threatened by Rudd’s budget razor gang, including payments for carers of disabled people. The next payment on the list is the “baby bonus” of about $4000 paid on the birth of a new child. Although Rudd denies any plans to do so, there are calls for the payment to be scrapped or at least means tested. Now I don’t think this payment is necessarily a great “fertility incentive” - let’s face it, babies are very expensive little things and a few thousand dollars doesn’t cover all the costs of having one - anyone who decided to have a child purely because of the lure of this money would be crazy. But as a way of helping out families with these expenses and making things a little easier, it’s a good thing. In our case it’s enabled me to reduce my hours at work for a few weeks surrounding the birth of Mia so I can be home more and help out with the kids. If the payment was means tested then I certainly wouldn’t be eligible and would have to work a lot more (I don’t get any sort of “paternity leave” or in fact paid leave of any kind). All this assumes that we actually get the payment - Centrelink already (typically) have made some sort of mistake and we need to go in to the office and sort it out. But anyway, I hope Rudd sticks to his promise and leaves the bonus alone.

Great piece in The Australian about some of the key differences between Western Australia and the rest of the nation - How the west is winning. I wouldn’t agree with every single statement he makes (like retail trading for example) but overall he’s fairly spot on. Well worth a read, particularly if you hail from elsewhere and want a snapshot of the mood in this big state of ours.

US deal ‘to trigger airfare price war’ | Herald Sun

This can only be good news. Apparently the US and Australian governments have finalised an “open skies” agreement which removes limits on the amount of flights and airlines on the trans-Pacific route between Australia and the USA. And hopefully increased competition and availability will drive down prices of flights in both directions. It probably won’t be for a little while (due to the impending birth of our new daughter) but I absolutely loved visiting America last year and am super keen to get back over there again. So I was very pleased when I saw this piece of news

Plot to kill Queen foiled - World - theage.com.au

It may sound silly but this story almost makes me feel proud - Ugandan security services foiled an Al Qaeda plot to attack the Queen in Kampala last year. I must say in my own dealings with the Uganda Police force last year I was not exactly inspired with confidence in them, but obviously those charged with protecting the Queen were a bit better resourced than the rank and file officers we dealt with. Anyway, good for Uganda - the newest ally in the war on terror!

Just watching live coverage of the US primary elections. Really impressed with Obama’s victory speech - very inspiring. It made Kevin Rudd’s acceptance speech when he won the Australian election look like a uni lecture. Clinton coming in third throws a big spanner into her campaign but by no means is it a knockout blow. Really hope Obama can maintain the momentum he has generated in Iowa. As for Huckabee… well I’ll admit he scares me a little - just seems to have come out of nowhere. Regardless of what happens, it will be fascinating to watch what happens in the USA in 2008…

Business beckons as Birney packs in politics – for now : thewest.com.au

I don’t normally pay a lot of attention to WA state politics but this story grabbed my attention for a couple of reasons. Matt Birney, former leader of the WA liberal opposition, announced yesterday he will be quitting politics to pursue a career in business. This will be a huge blow to the already hopeless WA Liberal party - Birney is one of their few bright stars who at least can string a sentence together and look good on TV (unlike their leader Paul Omodei).

One of the reasons Birney gave for quitting, in his refreshingly honest announcement was that politics is “an expensive hobby that did not pay the bills.” This drew a bit of fire from the West today, since the $125,000 base pay plus allowances of a backbencher is far above the average wage in our community. However I must say I agree with Birney here and always find it annoying when the media complain about MP’s salaries. The fact is that although MP’s get a pay that is considerably above the average wage, they have to work incredibly hard and make a lot of sacrifices for it. And more tellingly, the pay of even a senior federal minister working incredibly long hours in a high pressure job, is still far below what can be earned in corporate management. If we want the best quality people running our country we should be prepared to pay them adequately. Leaders in business, law, medicine and other professions are unlikely to be able to take a huge pay cut in order to enter the risky arena of politics. Especially in these boom times where unskilled young people can be earning well over $100,000 in the mining industry, we should be paying our government leaders more. And in reality, even if we were to double the salary of all the MPs in the country, the impact on the federal and state budgets would be minimal - a small price to pay for potentially attracting the best possible candidates to run our governments.

Looks like I’m a day behind the news, but I only just saw this story - Peter Costello has decided to not stand for the Liberal leadership. I’m a bit surprised but you can’t really blame him. Realistically it’s unlikely Rudd will be defeated at the next election, and the chance of Costello surviving as opposition leader for 6 years is pretty remote. I think it’s a sad loss for the party - I’ve always thought Costello would make a good Prime Minister, but I can completely understand why he’s doing it. Will be interesting to see who’s next though…

Many times during the recent election campaign I found myself wondering why there were no articles from my favourite journalist - The Australian’s Matt Price - one of the most insightful and entertaining writers in Australia. Well now I’ve discovered why - unfortunately he died yesterday after being diagnosed with brain tumours in September, according to this article. I, along with many others I’m sure, will definitely miss him. My thoughts and prayers go out to his young family. A sad loss indeed…

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness

This is a very disturbing article with interviews from 50 US veterans of the war in Iraq about the treatment of Iraqi civilians. Very long, and uncomfortable to read, but equally impossible to stop. Eye-opening and scary

Rudd vows to fix doctor shortage | The Australian

KEVIN Rudd is promising to pay to fill a shortfall of doctors across the nation after a comprehensive audit of how many are needed.

Once again Kevin Rudd is sticking to his two main vote winning techniques. One is promising inquires, commitees, investigations, audits. And the second is throwaway slogans saying that he’s going to fix whatever problem it is he’s addressing. But always the promises lack any real detail.

The problem in this case is that you can’t pay to fix a doctor shortage. No matter how much money you spend you can’t magically make doctors appear out of thin air to fill a void. There is only a finite number of doctors to go around. Sure he could spend money to pay the existing doctors more (and I’m certainly in favour of that - lol) but that would not solve workforce problems. Even if by paying GPs more it encouraged more doctors to enter GP training that’s only going to add to a shortfall in other specialties. The only quick fix for doctor numbers is to import more from overseas, which is already being done to a huge extent. But that approach has it’s problems in terms of insuring quality treatment, and the questionable ethics of poaching doctors from other countries which may be experiencing their own doctor shortages.

The long term solution is more medical school places, and a shorter term solution is to work on measures to redistribute doctors to better address needs across the community. The Howard government has already taken steps on both these issues, although I’m sure there is more tinkering that can be done. Basically no matter what they do, this doctor shortage is a long term issue that is not going to disappear overnight no matter how many audits they do or how much money they spend. Rudd is again being disingenuous by suggesting that he will be able to magically fix it.

Battle of ‘Young Howards’ : The Australian

Could this be true? Paradoxically after all the recent leadership turmoil, the liberals may in the end come out of it with a bit of a “fresh start,” even without switching leaders. Instead of one PM fighting against Kevin Rudd, the Liberals now have two candidates with Peter Costello likely to play a much bigger role in the campaign. I’ve always thought Costello was better at articulating a vision for the future than John Howard (which is just what the Libs need now - not just past successes but a plan for the future), and he’s already come out doing it. After days of silence, he looks like a man on a mission, and indeed the whole party seems a lot more positive and energized. Keeping Howard, but being honest and up-front about a future transition to Costello, is probably the best move they could have made, allowing them to play both the experience and ‘youth’ cards at the same time (and Costello can lay claim to both those attributes, unlike Rudd, who lacks the experience of Government.)

So now we have three Howards - the original, the younger Labor version, and the younger Liberal version (Costello just needs to get some glasses and a tracksuit, and eyebrow implants) - whether this is enough to save the coalition I doubt, but it’s probably the best strategy for them to take under the circumstances. How the electorate responds we will have to wait and see…

Edit : here’s another good opinion piece on the same subject, which expresses similar ideas : Is the Treasurer Howard’s Rabbit?

Founder of Whirlpool discussion forum being sued | NEWS.com.au

This is a slightly disturbing story. A software company are suing the founder of the Australian broadband forum Whirlpool, for negative comments about it’s software posted by users on the site. Now I’ve consulted Whirlpool many times and found it to be a very useful site. Though there will usually be a range of differing opinions on virtually any topic, it is still valuable for advice and recommendations. This lawsuit is not a god thing for a number of reasons. Firstly it’s censoring the ability of people to make their opinions known on a site like this (which therefore might impede the ability of the rest of us to find opinions and advice on the net), and secondly it’s making the owners of the site responsible for the opinions of others which are posted there. If this suit is successful, does that mean I could be held responsible legally for what I say here, or even worse, for what commenters say? It takes us down a very tricky road. I sincerely hope this case gets laughed out of court.

I know my postings have turned a bit political of late, and I’ll try to avoid this blog being too narrowly focused, but I couldn’t resist linking this piece from The Australian :

Howard Must Go | Janet Albrechtsen Blog | The Australian - “Howard must go” - there’s been no shortage of that kind of talk recently but what makes this so notable is that it’s from the pen of Janet Albrechtsen, who is probably one of the most pro-Howard journalists in Australia. Even in this article she’s effusive in her praise of the man, calling him the finest Prime Minister we’ve ever had…

But then she goes on, with a heavy heart, to say why she thinks Howard should pass the baton to Peter Costello, which she introduces with this wonderful line “The last rabbit Howard should pull out of the hat is Peter Costello.”

What an amazing turn of events that would be! But I can’t see it happening. If nothing else Howard’s tenacity and persistence would stand in the way of him making such a move, and realistically I don’t know if it’s the best thing for Costello or the Liberals to do this right now. It’s a move that should have been made probably 6, 12, 18 months ago. The leadership now, for Costello, would be a poisoned chalice. I can’t see him, in the space of a few weeks campaigning, turning things around enough to beat Kevin Rudd. Costello’s best chance of being PM (for more than a few weeks) is for Howard to win an improbable victory and then hand over within a year of the election. His second best chance is for Rudd to win and then for Labor to stuff everything up - if the economy goes pear shaped and the unions muscle back in then in 3 years time the electorate  may well be ready to welcome back with open arms “the best treasurer Australia has ever had” to come in and straighten things out. So while a Rudd v Costello battle now would be a fascinating ride and a huge gamble, I doubt it’s gonna happen. Regardless of what happens, Australian politics is the most interesting it’s ever been right now - a PM on the ropes, an ascendant opposition leader showing off by making speeches in Mandarin, and a bunch of global heavyweights like Bush, Putin, Abe, and Hu cruising around Sydney. Hold on to your seats!

Allow me to get a little bit political for a few moments … It’s good to see that health has finally opened up as a bit of a battleground for the upcoming election, after a couple of fairly quiet years on the health policy front. This was sparked off by Kevin Rudd’s headline grabbing “policies” of a federal takeover of state hospitals and something called GP “super clinics.” There’s been plenty written about the former idea and all the potential problems associated with it (including maybe an increased GST) but not much press on the Super Clinics. Like most of Rudd’s policies to date, it seems to be a flashy title designed to beguile the public and make Rudd seem like a sensible man of action, yet has very little substance behind it. As if building these new clinics is going to address the problems of a nationwide doctor shortage and overcrowded emergency departments. Where are they going to get these doctors from? If they manage to attract doctors to shift into these practices (and so far the only “incentive” I have seen mentioned is a $15,000 payment which really won’t attract many GPs at all, especially if these clinics are to be bulk-billing clinics which would actually reduce most GPs’ income)… but even if they can attract GPs to work there, aren’t they just shifting the problem from one place to another, making it even harder to get appointments in the practices the doctors woul be forsaking? When there’s only a limited pool of doctors, building new clinics won’t go a long way towards solving the problem, they need to add to the pool of doctors… HOW? only two possibilities spring to mind - one is increasing the medical school intake, which the Howard Govt has already done, but which is a long term solution only since it will be years before these new docs are practicing. Or secondly increasing the amount of foreign doctors allowed to work here, but this is both morally ambiguous (since we might be “stealing” doctors from other countries who need them even more) and slightly dodgy politically (after the recent doctor terrorist scare) and medically (since it’s hard to assure the quality of medicine practiced). So Super Clinics is all headline (don’t you just love the word “Super”!) but no substance. But hopefully it will have the effect of upping the ante and making health a bigger issue in the upcoming election. Hopefully the government can come up with a better plan than Rudd’s efforts so far.

‘Terror’ doctors quizzed in WA and NSW | NEWS.com.au

TWO West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign doctors questioned as Australian inquiries connected to the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks spread to two more states.

This is all a bit of a worry. Not only potential terrorists in our midst,but terrorist doctors! I’m not sure if I should be glad to be getting Australia today or more worried. Now I usually travel with my stethescope in my cabin luggage (just in case I need it) but maybe I should think twice about that now. It might mark me as a potential terrorist, especially when we fly in to London in a week’s time. Scary!

Fifth suspect held in British terror hunt | News | The Australian

Failed car bombings in London and and a crazy attempt to blow up Glasgow airport - just when we start to relax these sort of stories come along and remind us what times we live in. It’s always a bit disconcerting to read these things but this one bothers me a little more than usual, considering that in 2 weeks from now we’ll be strolling around London. And if this sort of thing makes me a little nervous to even visit the place, I can only begin to imagine how it must make the locals feel..

I must admit, for the last couple of months I’ve been a bit news-starved. I rarely catch the TV news and my newspaper abruptly stopped coming a while back (I didn’t bother chasing it since I knew I’d have to cancel it for our trip anyway)

So I get most of my news online, which is a bit of a patchy way to read the news because you can pick and choose which headlines are of interest. Often reading the Opinion sections of the news sites (esp The Australian) is the best way to get a handle on things.

So here’s a couple of opinion pieces that caught my interest today

A crawl to prosperity ain’t money for jam | Matt Price | The Australian - Matt Price is perhaps my favourite Australian journalist. Often humorous, always insightful, generally fair though perhaps with a very slight tilt to the right. And as an added bonus he comes from Perth, which means he gets it in a way that journos from the East don’t. The above article takes a step back and looks at why Kevin Rudd is so popular in the polls, how even in an environment of unprecedented economic prosperity, voters’ fears for the future, especially the future of their children, have a profound effect on their politics. Although Rudd certainly doesn’t have any better answers for these fears than Howard, it is his clever exploitation of these issues that may see him elected.

Noel Pearson: Politics aside, an end to the tears is our priority | Opinion | The Australian - this gives the perspective of an Aboriginal leader on John Howard’s extraordinary moves to address child abuse in indigenous communities. Pearson is broadly supportive of the Howard plan, however offers some important warnings about where it may fall short. For an analysis of the politics of the situation, check out this piece from Glen Milne - PM’s haters parade their own defects. Few people disagree totally with what Howard is doing, but many of the left-leaning journos are lining up to find dark, politically inspired motives behind it (aka the new Tampa) - Milne adroitly takes them to task in his article. I thought Kevin Rudd was very clever not to get “political” or criticize Howard much on this issue - he didn’t need to. All he needs is for the leftist press to sow the seeds of political doubt about Howard’s motives, and he can stand innocently to the side with his principled support. This issue will not be a new Tampa - sadly there are less people whose votes will be influenced by the plight of indigenous children than there were whose votes may have been affected by their fear of a wave of illegal immigrants and “terrorists.” Which hearkens back to the pointin the paragraph above - fear is a key political motivator. Howard (might have) used it in his favour in 2001, and it is Rudd who can use it to the opposite effect now.

Diggers ruled out for Darfur | News | The Australian

Good news that the world is finally taking some action on Darfur, but it’s a shame that our “over-stretched” military can’t send any sort of contribution. It’s not all that far from Iraq to Sudan, perhaps some of our troops in Iraq should be moved to somewhere where they might actually be able to achieve something…

Perth cements spot as Australia’s priciest city : thewest.com.au

I was interested to read in this morning’s newspaper that Perth has crept into first place as Australia’s most expensive place to buy a home. It’s not a huge surprise given the way house prices have gone up over the last couple of years, but it’s still pretty amazing when you compare it to a few years ago. Certainly less than 5 years ago I can remember looking at prices in Sydney and wondering how on earth regular people could afford to live there, and being thankful that our prices in Perth were half the amount. Not so anymore - the median house price in Perth is now $508,900, just passing Syndey’s $507,400. The median monthly mortgage payment is now $3009, compared to $3000 in Sydney. Now that amount seems quite a lot to me, and I’m on a reasonably high income - I don’t know how people on average wages could manage that.

Looking on a broader scale, let’s review the List of most expensive cities from 2006. Back then Sydney was 19th [20th in 2005], and Perth was 93rd [93rd in 2005]. Assuming that housing is one of the biggest expenses to be taken into account, and assuming relative stability of the rest of the list (and these are big assumptions I know!) then this news might catapult Perth into the top 20 most expensive cities in the world! How crazy is that? Especially considering we are the most isolated capital city in the world, but then again maybe that’s part of the charm for some people (that and maybe the little fact of the large supply of well paying mining jobs in this part of the world..)

This is interesting to compare to house prices elsewhere in the world. Jenni showed me the other day some pictures/prices that she had been sent of homes in Nashville. Compare the house on the left in Baldivis (not far from us, 44km from Perth) for A$499,000; with this house on the right from Nashville for A$455,000. I know which one looks better to me! Now I know there’s a whole lot of other factors to take into account when performing such a comparison aside from price and looks, but as a simple visual illustration of how crazy the house prices here in Perth have gone I think it’s quite telling. I’ll be very interested to see where Perth actually ranks on the next list of most expensive cities (FYI - Nashville is not even in the top 144) and if we do make it up to the top 20 or not. Though I guess it’s not a climb we want to be celebrating too much. Anyway I suppose I’d better get back to work so I can afford those mortgage payments…

Ben Witherington: Mr. Falwell Moves On Up

I didn’t know a whole lot about him, but I’d always had a very negative impression about Jerry Falwell, the American fundamentalist leader who died a couple of days ago. The above article by Ben Witherington doesn’t completely change that (and indeed some quotes in the comments on the post actually reinforce it) but it does present a more balanced, more positive view of the man - unlike other televangelists he was an honest and authentic man who sincerely believed in what he said, and was not afraid to apologise when at times he got it wrong. For all the harmful things he said and believed, the man did a lot of good as well, and you have to give him credit for that.

For another, similar article see this post by left-wing Christian Jim Wallis of Sojourners. If even he can find some positive things to say about Falwell then he can’t be all bad.

EDIT (24/5) : and here’s some more thoughtful comments on Falwell , this time by N T Wright.

JK Rowling lifts reward to $9m | NEWS.com.au

Now I’m sympathetic towards the family of this little girl who has disappeared in Portugal (although to go off and have dinner whilst leaving your kids alone in a hotel room is not the brightest thing to do), but I must admit when I hear of a nine million dollar reward for the return of one child it just doesn’t quite feel right. I can’t help thinking of what else could be done with the millions - how many children’s lives could be saved in the third world for that amount? But I guess a gift to starving children in Africa doesn’t make as exciting headlines as a lost little girl in Europe.

For some reason my newspapers have stopped being delivered over the last couple of weeks and I haven’t had time to ring up and get it restarted. Not sure that I’ll bother now until we get back from our big trip.

But this means I’m depending on the internet for all my news and it’s a bit of a hit and miss affair. For example I can’t believe I missed this classic quote from Kevin Rudd attacking PM John Howard over his embrace of nuclear power in the war on climate change :

“But instead Mr Howard has gone the 25 nuclear reactor way. That’s his solution for the future.

It’s the Montgomery Burns solution for Australia’s future climate change challenge.

And if you think of the nuclear safety record out there at Smithfield (sic) with Homer Simpson in charge, be afraid, be very afraid.”

Like I said the other day I’m a bit less impressed with Rudd after his IR policy launch at the weeked, however you’ve gotta give kudos to a politician using analogies from The Simpsons (though he loses marks for getting the name of Springfield wrong!)

Politics is once again getting very interesting …. excellennnnt…

Paul Kelly: A bizarre blast from the past | The Australian

It’s bound to happen in every TV show and perhaps every political career. And it looks like Kevin Rudd’s dream run has finally come to an end - he’s hopped on his water-skis and jumped that shark. A Labor leader taking his party to the center, standing up to the unions and moving into the 21st century in Blair-like fashion sounded too good to be true … and indeed it was. The commentators are having a field day following the weekend Labor conference, and Paul Kelly’s article above is right on the money…

At this point Labor loses the goodwill of big business, the hope of winning small business and the dream that it stands for entrepreneurship. Rudd’s election strategy is to pitch to working families with the claim that an arrogant Howard has abandoned them.

The stage is set for a bitter election over the industrial model that Australia needs for its open economy, an issue unresolved for a generation that now approaches showdown time.

In his speech, Rudd said Howard had launched “an assault on Australian family life” and that Labor would “restore the balance”.

This is neither a credible nor accurate statement about the totality of Labor’s policy. This policy goes far beyond any family friendly test. It is better described as union friendly. The details and the scale of Labor’s package transcend any effort merely to restore fairness to the workplace.

So the battle lines are drawn - the scene is set for the next election. Either Rudd has shown his true colours or has shown his weakness in this capitulation to the union movement - either way he’s jumped the shark as far as I’m concerned (and to think I was starting to like the guy!) The big question remains though - will the Australian public be fooled by this “family values” line and maintain Rudd’s high ratings, or are Kevin Rudd’s Happy Days drawing to an end? Stay tuned…

Ben Witherington: CHRISTIANS AND GUN CONTROL: AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME?

I’ve refrained from commenting on the terrible massacre in the US last week thus far - what more is there to say really? I spent half of Thursday evening when I was sick stuck in front of Fox News watching the home videos of Cho being played endlessly - despite their mostly solemn faces the journos seemed to be lapping it up.

Here in Australia very few people have guns and gun ownership is not a big political issue - and when it was an issue back in the 90s after the Port Arthur killings our government moved swiftly to tighten up gun laws and hundreds of thousands of weapons were turned in. So all this makes it hard for us to appreciate just what a hot potato this issue is over in the US. I don’t necessarily see gun control as being a religious issue - it just sounds like plain common sense to me - however in the above article theologian Ben Witherington makes a strong scripturally based case in favour of stricter gun control. Thought provoking and well worth reading.

Aussie dollar hits 17-year high. 13/04/2007. ABC News Online

Well this is not necessarily good news for everybody, but for those of us who like to shop online it’s not bad. Hope it stays like this (or higher) through into July and August as it will make our trip to the USA that much more affordable (plus it’s my birthday while we’re away and I’ve got my heart set on one of these…)

I haven’t seen it feature in the mainsteam media much as yet, but reports are beginning to circulate on the net about Titanic director James Cameron’s latest documentary, about a tomb unearthed in Jerusalem which they claim is that of Jesus and his family. For some reason this doesn’t seem to be garnering the kind of attention that the Gospel of Judas got last year, even despite the Hollywood clout of Cameron. Perhaps because their premise and logic is so far-fetched that it simply smacks of a pseudo-controversy drummed up to sell books and videos.

Anyway, before this story gets any more attention, let me point you in the direction of some good blog entries on the subject by some reputable New Testament scholars :

• Ben Witherington: THE JESUS TOMB? ‘TITANIC’ TALPIOT TOMB THEORY SUNK FROM THE START
• Darrell Bock : Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They Share?
• Scot McKnight : Was Jesus Married? One More Time

Howard heart-attack email carries virus - Security - Technology - theage.com.au -  I got two of these emails yeterday afternoon, and I must admit it made my heart skip a beat when I saw it. I wasn’t taken in enough to click on the link in the email, but it did make me do a scan of other news sites and check the TV news when I got home for any other reports of the Prime Minister’s demise.

Allow the conspiracy theorist in me to come out for a minute. Wouldn’t this sort of hoax email be a great ploy for the Australian Labor Party? The very fact that a John Howard heart attack is a believable story is a reminder to the electorate that the man is getting on in years. I believe they’ve had to turn up the PA at Parliament to enable Howard to hear properly, since his deafness is worsening. I don’t seriously think for a second that the ALP would be involved in this sort of thing, but any kind of reminders of Howard’s age will only serve to make Kevin Rudd, labor’s more youthful Howard clone, seem more comparatively appealing.

The Moon Goes Metric -  just came across this story on Google News. NASA and other international space agencies have come to an agreement that the metric system of measurements will be used for future missions to the moon. Thank God for that! I’ll be glad when the last vestiges of the imperial system are finally gone from the earth and everyone uses the sensible, logical metric system. It’s annoying that as an obstetrician looking after babies of women in their 20s and younger, who have never known the old system, I still have to convert the weight of almost every single baby into pounds. I hope I’m not having to do that in another 10 years time.

Interestingly there are now only three backward countries in the world not using the metric system - Burma, Liberia, and the USA!

Beazley breaks down in front of press | | The Australian

Well poor Kim Beazley has lost his job as leader of the opposition again, almost certainly for good this time. I quite like Kim - he’s our local MP and seems like a good bloke but he’s had a tough time competing against an ascendant liberal government in a time of economic prosperity. I also like his successor Kevin Rudd, a very intelligent guy who is very open about his Christian faith. If we did ever end up with a Labor Government I think Rudd would be a good man to have at the helm, though his chances of winning the next election are slim.

In a double blow for Beazley, not only has he lost his job today but also he lost his brother, who died of a heart attack this morning. You can’t help but feel sorry for the man. It’s obviously affecting him as the above story shows, with him breaking down in front of the press and saying about Kevin Rudd :

“He will be a very good leader of the Australian Liberal Party. He will take us to victory at the next election.”

Now I’m not sure if that was a typo by the website or what Kim actually said. Maybe there’s a grain of truth in it - the only way for Kevin Rudd to be PM would be to join the Liberal Party (and then roll Howard, Costello, Abbott, Turnbull and a bunch of other leadership aspirants - come to think of it - he’s probably wiser sticking with Labor)

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Briefly, on the subject of Kevin Rudd, here’s a fascinating interview I dug up from ABCs Compass Program in May last year, in which he discusses his faith, and the nexus of religion and politics. Well worth reading to help get more of an idea of where this guy is coming from… Will be interesting to see if he makes an appearance at Hillsong this year…

Kevin Rudd : The God Factor

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And finally, it hasn’t taken the Libs long to respond to the change of leadership with a comical website (they must have been saving this up all weekend). Check out this one :

Same Old Labor

John Sentamu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today is the first anniversary of the enthronement of John Sentamu as Archbishop of York, I just read in Wikipedia. I had previously heard of this guy but didn’t know that he actually hails from Kampala, where he served as a judge for a year under Idi Amin, before fleeing to the UK and commencing his training for the priesthood. Sounds like a very interesting story.

Yellow Wiggle’s sad goodbye - Music - Entertainment - theage.com.au

As a parent of young kids I have had a lot of exposure to The Wiggles over the past 5 years, from watching their DVDs, listening to their music in the car, and even going to two of their concerts and their theme park. So it was with sadness I saw this news story that the lead singer and yellow Wiggle, Greg, has had to quit the band due to health problems. Apparently he has this condition called Orthostatic Intolerance. It’s one of those odd conditions they don’t teach about in medical school, yet which apparently “500,000 Americans are afflicted” with. Another one of these diagnoses that are supposedly common in America yet we hear very little about here in Australia (others include interstitial cystitis and male chronic pelvic pain, which I have come across recently but had known very little of before…)

Anyway the Wiggles just won’t be the same without Greg. I can’t imagine someone else filling his shoes (or skivvy). Kiddies everywhere will be heartbroken.

Jesus in cyberspace - you’d better believe it - National - smh.com.au

Interesting story from Sydney here, where the evangelical Anglican Diocese have appointed their first “internet pastor” with a commision to :

“establish an interactive website forum for Bible studies … in response to the mission of the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, to convert 10 per cent of Sydneysiders to the gospel by 2012. It recognises that the internet is a popular tool, especially among a new, technology-savvy generation, and that unless ways can be found to reach more people, churches might wilt and die.”

Nice to see one of the old school denominations willing to use new ways and new technology to reach the community. Also good to see them getting serious about mission and setting goals to that effect. 10% might not sound like much, but when you apply it to a city like Sydney with over 3 million people that’s still a pretty good effort if they can achieve it. Who says that Calvinists aren’t serious about evangelism? Remembering that Sydney is also the home of Hillsong and some other sizeable Pentecostal groups there’s going to be a lot of stuff happening in that city in the years to come. Will be interesting to watch.

ABC News: Kazakhstan’s War of Words Against Borat

Hilarious story at the moment coming out of Washington DC about the fictional Kazakh reporter Borat, who has been holding press conferences outside the Kazakhstani embassy and trying to get into the White House in order to promote his new movie, “Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Among other things he wanted to invite some notable Americans to a preview of his film, including President “George Walter Bush,” Secretary Rumsfeld, Bill Gates, “O.J. Simpsons” and “Mel Gibsons.” The above article from American ABC news gives some of the most detailed coverage I’ve seen of his antics, which just happen to coincide with a visit to Washington by the real President of Kazakhstan.

I haven’t seen much of this guy’s work before, but if the rest of it is as funny as this episode I’ll definitely check out his movie. He’s kind of like a Kazakh version of the Australian character from the 1970s Norman Gunston, who made a name for himself harassing famous people.

While I’m at it, I’ll make a book recommendation for those of you who like irrerverent satire pertaining to central Asian former Soviet republics. A couple of months ago I read Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart - the tale of an overweight Russian Jew who is into hip-hop but is unable to get back into the US since his wealthy father murdered a businessman from Oklahoma, and his misadventures in the fictional republic of Absurdistan. It’s a very weird book, but good for a laugh, and if you probe a little deeper there’s some cutting satire aimed at both American and Russian culture. At the moment I’ve loaned it to my Jewish Russian friend so I’ll be interested to hear his take on it.

Well it’s been a week for well known Australians being killed doing the dangerous things that made them famous. First it was the sad news about Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray, and now this piece of news just hit my inbox : Peter Brock killed in crash -  theage.com.au - apparently the racing legend’s car hit a tree while racing a rally here in Western Australia. I had said to someone the other day that although it was sad that Steve Irwin had died, at least he had gone out doing the thing he loved, rather than getting cancer or dying in a crash. And the same is true for Brocky - after so many years racing it’s both tragic and yet somehow fitting that he died behind the wheel… A sad week here in Australia all round.

These things seem to come in three’s though - wonder who’ll be the next Australia to die doing what they’re known best for? How about Germaine Greer dying with her foot stuck in her mouth??

Paper blanks page to expose ‘whitewash’ - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

This is a story from Melbourne’s Age newspaper discussing the front page of The West Australian today, which was completely blank aside from a small paragraph. The idea is that it was supposed to illustrate the “whitewash” of the WA state government in an alleged cover-up of an investigation into the failure of government agencies to prevent the death of an abused baby.

It’s a sad story, and legitimate news, however seeing the newspaper cover this morning just made me angry at the paper itself. The West has never exactly been a bastion of journalistic integrity and quality, but in recent months the paper has been getting more and more sensationalistic and the quality of reporting and particularly the blatant editorializing puts it squarely in the tabloid category. I think for me the decline began to accelerate when they ran a vigorous front page campaign a few months back to get better labelling of fruit, complete with little cut-out forms you could fill in and send to the paper to add your voice to the outcry on this crucial issue! Fruit labelling - front page news? I think not. Every week I find myself cringing at at least 2 or 3 of the front page stories and headlines. Most days I find myself ignoring three quarters of the news reports anyway. The paper has a good detailed sports news section at the back (which is fine) but they also often have sport on the front page, and another detailed lift-out sport section in the middle several days a week. Sport is fine but do we really need that much of it, when most days we get 2-3 pages of federal politics, and maybe 3 or 4 pages of international news (of which well over 50% is usually advertising anyway)?

I’m afraid this white front page is the last straw for me. I’m no longer going to waste my money on a tabloid paper with barely any readable articles. Today my West Australian subscription is being cancelled. Unfortunately our state only has one daily paper so there is nothing to replace it with - I think it will have to be The Australian even though that doesn’t have much WA news. At least the journalistic quality is somewhat better.