July 5, 2011

Access Ministries: More Poll Bombing Spam – And Why It’s Not OK

Posted by franc under education, ethics, Evonne Paddison, hyperreality, media, politics, propaganda, religion | Tags: , , , , , , , |
1 Comment 

Latest Access poll stacking spam, click to enlarge

As predicted, yes there was a spam doing the rounds for the newest poll held at Yahoo! News. It was picked up by Mike Stuchbery about a week ago – and its inevitable existence elicited a largely ho-hum reaction from me and didn’t really motivate me enough to even update the previous blog. There really isn’t that much to be excited about – a bunch of deceitful dirt-bags just conducting business-as-usual, banal to the point of dullness.

But kudos to Mike for capturing and documenting it, because it does need to be recorded and added to the list of Access Ministries abuses against everyone non-Access.

But what the spam does is confirm, yet again, that what Access Ministries and the Australian Christian Lobby really, really, really hate is that the general public so continuously refuses to give them the unanimous fawning love they without doubt deserve. In fact, it peeves them no end that they don’t seem to be very popular with the public at all. Reality conflicts with delusion. There is dissonance. (more…)

 

June 7, 2011

Access Ministries: Professor Barry McGaw – Is There Something You’re Not Telling Us?

Posted by franc under education, ethics, Evonne Paddison, politics, religion | Tags: , , , , , , , |
[6] Comments 

”I don’t see anything wrong with a special religious instruction that operates precisely on [the current] grounds. If we deny any place to religion in public education and wish to make it entirely [secular], we are actually basing it on a particular world view.”

Sound familiar? It should. It probably just looks unusual unaccompanied by any extended frothing about fundamentalist atheists, militant secularists, christophobes (or similar epithets) bent on destroying christianity itself. But other than that, it is the same tired, casuist misrepresentation that is framing the debate as one of absolute anti-theism vs. the decent christian world and not one of a protest against SRI and the NSCP being hijacked by incorrigible liars from various non-representative christian cults of the crusading, charismatic, snake-handling variety. This is the only real card the Access apologists have to play because the less that the average, census ticking Australian christian family knows about what folks like Access Ministries get up to in our schools, or what their “education” consists of, the better.

The problem with the above quote though is that it’s not from an actual (known) Access apologist/shill, but from Professor Barry McGaw who heads up the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) – who are ultimately responsible for the curricula in Australian schools from Kindergarten to Year 12. (more…)

 

May 25, 2011

Access Ministries: Pissing on Jesus

Posted by franc under ethics, Evonne Paddison, idiocy, nonsense, politics, propaganda, religion | Tags: , , , |
1 Comment 

In one ear and out the other

Proverbs1 –

14:5. An honest witness does not deceive,
but a false witness pours out lies.

14:8. The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways,
but the folly of fools is deception.

What seems to have been forgotten in this whole debacle of the Access Ministries, SUQLD, ACL et al. sideshow is basic, humble christianity. In fact, trapped in an anachronistic timewarp, they seem to believe they are crusaders and engaged in a war against those not of the faith and that the world appears to be one of crystalline black and white. The war they wage, for lack of actual might and numbers, is a guerrilla war – but nevertheless, it is a war and they are clearly on a war footing. There is a vast nebulous army of darkness bent on laying waste christendom itself (apparently), the tentacles of its conspiracy reaching everywhere, but especially into the media where it pulls all the strings and calls all the shots…

…But really, they are like frightened children who’s fervent imaginations amplify the slightest noises in the dark and invest them with unseen, imaginary menace and malice. (more…)

 

May 22, 2011

Access Ministries: Lies, Damn Lies, and Online Polls

Posted by franc under ethics, idiocy, media, politics, propaganda, religion | Tags: , , , , , , |
[10] Comments 

IX:37 – To begin by bluster, but afterwards to take fright
at the enemy’s numbers, shows a supreme lack of intelligence.
But bombing online polls? Man, that’s just retarded.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Opinion is divided as to whether the idea of online polls have any intrinsic merit whatsoever1. At best they are an amusing distraction, at worst they are a showdown between socially networked losers who’s lives are so hollow they need artificial gimmicks like these to give some kind of substance to their lives – a fearsome contest to see who’s gang is bigger than the other over really critical stuff like whether Justin Bieber sucks or not – and this hint of desperation can often inspire less than ethical or rational behaviour. Often, even common vandalism by “bombing” the polls either with flash mobs voting dozens or hundreds of times over, or for the more technically accomplished, by bombing the poll with automated scripts.

So to my mind, if these polls are going to provide any meaningful reflection of reality, it’s probably only during the course of the first few hours, before any of the vandals or pitchforks-n-torches lynch mobs can organise themselves enough to start making any real impact. (more…)

 

May 21, 2011

Access Ministries: Black, White and Grey Lies

Posted by franc under ethics, idiocy, nonsense, politics, propaganda, religion | Tags: , , , , , , |
[10] Comments 

Lets get something straight up front – when it comes to accepting government contracts valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, there is no such thing as an acceptable “white” lie. At all. Ever. No amount of squealing, foot stomping tantrum throwing can change that.

As for black lies, they are well established. By now, everyone in the country is fully aware of Access’ po-faced, remorseless deception and disregard for binding contractual agreements committed knowingly and with premeditation to get a foothold in our education system and to fraudulently siphon funding from the public purse. Their actions were coldly calculated, and committed under the belief that their falsehood was divinely sanctioned, an evangelical interpretation of sanctified, christianised taqiyya. These are “black” lies, blacker than satan’s arsehole. (more…)