A Response to the WBC Site "God Hates Australia" Part 5.

In this part we look at the last section of the Westboro Baptist Church's "God Hates Australia" site.

If you are joining us late, please start from part 1.

But on with the show. The section in question is "Australia's Poster Children For Sin". Because we all know that sin has to have poster children. So in this case they are talking about celebrities.

Their first "poster child" is of course Heath Ledger. A man who is only here because he played a gay man in a movie. That was it. They even start this page of with the following:

Two words…..BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN!!!!

This is what they have to say on Heath Ledger:

Heath Ledger: Actor, died by an overdose in January of 2008. This young man was raised by parents who were divorced (I know shocker, right) who taught him to chase after every lust in his evil heart. Not only that, but do whatever it takes to be famous because that’s more important than serving God. This is what happens when you spit in God’s face with fag propaganda….you are sent a strong delusion by the hand of your God!

Based on only the laziest of research (I'm putting in a little more then they put in to make this site though) they ignore the fact that apart from being divorced, both his parents had remarried, and neither of them were gay. I don't know what exactly they taught him but I personally doubt that he was taught to "chase after every lust in his evil heart".

Now I would like stress here that the only thing that causes him to be "evil" is because he was in Brokeback Mountain that is his only crime. If he weren't in that movie I would be certain that he wouldn't be on this page.

There is one thing here that I have noticed. Back in Part 3 I pointed out that they used their "religion" page to basically bash Catholics. But nowhere have they mentioned Mel Gibson. I find that a bit odd, but I wonder whether it has something to do with the more fundamentalist views that Mr. Gibson holds, even though he is a Catholic. I suspect that they might consider him to be doing "God's work".

But continuing on, we meet our second "poster child for sin":

Portia de Rossi: Actress, Ellen Degeneres’ so called wife. This lady has a platform that instead of doing her duty and obeying her God, she would rather live in defiance! Shame on you, Australia, for teaching this woman from her youth up that it’s ok to be gay…look at what you’ve done. She will be held accountable for her actions, but don’t think for one second that you are innocent regarding this matter!

Portia de Rossi was born in Geelong, Victoria in 1973. However I really doubt that Australia taught her that it was ok for her to be gay. In Part 4 I posted the paragraph that mentioned that homosexuality was finally decriminalised in all states in 1997. I however didn't really go on about it there. I will here however.

The history of the decriminalisation process for homosexuality started in 1972 in South Australia. For those playing at home you would remember that back in Part 1 I pointed out that SA has the fewest rights for homosexuals compared to the rest of Australia. It's somewhat ironic in a way that a state that led the way is now backwards.

This process started during the time of Don Dunstan (who is one of our greatest premiers) which saw the passing of a "consenting and in private" type of defence, not knowing all of the facts I'd assume it was watered down by the hostile Legislative Council but the Sodomy law was repealed in 1975. It still had to be in private but it was a start. The ACT would follow in 1976 and they also equalised their age of consent.

De Rossi would have been 8 when they finally decriminalised homosexuality in Victoria, in 1981. NSW would outlaw descrimination against people who were, or were considered, homosexual. NT would legalise homosexuality in 1984 and WA, confusingly to me at least, decriminalised male homosexuality in 1989, and set the age of consent for homosexual acts to 21. Queensland repeals their sodomy law in 1991. Finally in 1997, Tasmania repeals the laws preventing you from being gay in private.

Although the law worked like that, public opinion takes far longer to change. Even today I would think it fair to say that homosexuality is only tolerated in Australia, but people aren't as accepting. The gay community is still fighting for acceptance and equality among the wider community.

Lastly, Portia de Rossi was married to Ellen DeGeneres in 2008 in the United States. However I don't know how their marriage has been effected by the passing of Proposition 8.

They separate these two people with the following Bible verse:

Proverbs 16:5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

Well it's a proverb so you can't really quote mine the Bible here, but I would guess that it refers to proud people regardless of sexual orientation. I suspect that the interpretation used by the WBC here is actually a narrowed interpretation of the proverb in question.

The next grouping of people are as follows:

Here are a few more proud, arrogant, rebellious brute beasts!

Peter Allen: Entertainer, died of AIDS related throat cancer.

Peter Allen who died in 1992, did die of AIDS related throat cancer. What puts him on this list would be, I suspect, because he is The Boy from Oz. The musical is based on his life. However, if this were the case then I would have thought that Hugh Jackman would have also been on this list. I would assume that had Brokeback Mountain either really sucked, or was never made, he would be.

Rob Astbury: Journalist, highest paid sports journalist in Australia but is more famous for being the ex-lover of Graham Kennedy; HIV positive.

Was. He was the highest paid sports journo. He also, after Derryn Hinch decided to be a jerk and outed him, his HIV status and claimed that Kennedy (who is considered the King of Comedy/Australian Television, even after his death) was also HIV positive, took a more active role in gay rights and AIDS education.

This is actually the second HIV positive person mentioned in this list. I guess the WBC still believes in the old "AIDS is a gay only disease" argument.

Darren Hayes: Singer of Savage Garden, is currently in a civil partnership with his boyfriend in England…YIKES!

Darren Hayes entered into a civil partnership with Richard Cullen in 2006. He is from Queensland, so it would be impossible to claim that "Australia taught him that it was ok to be gay" because he would have been 20 when the law regarding sodomy and homosexuality was finally repealed.

Anthony Venn-Brown: Evangelist for the Assemblies of God dog-kennel; the original founder of Youth Alive (you know how these fags love to attract children to their filth)!

Anthony Venn-Brown was an evangelist for the Assemblies of God. He is now a gay ambassador (apparently that is the term he uses), and has been since he came out in 1991. He has an autobiography entitled A Life of Unlearning which talks about his struggles within himself and being part of an organisation that considers homosexuality to be an abomination.

I don't know how long exactly this page has been around for, I can't find anything for the main site so I think that it has only appeared in the last 6 months. But this kind of innacuracy is to be honest unacceptable. He hasn't been a minister for 18 years but they still list him as a member.

It should also be noted that the WBC does not seem to think highly of the Pentacostal organisation, we all know that the "dog-kennel" is a dead giveaway.

Lastly, I suspect that Mr. Venn-Brown is only on here because of his past as a preacher, because it reflects badly on denominations that aren't the WBC and for his founding of the Youth Alive programme, because it is "evidence" that "homosexuals are paedophiles", even though there is no evidence that supports that. It is however a view that is used continuously by the WBC.

We finish this look at the last section of this site with a Bible quote:

Isaiah 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

It's actually from a passage relating to Babylon. Not gay people. You fail again Westboro Baptist Church.

A Response to the WBC Site "God Hates Australia" Part 4.

After a brief delay (read: I couldn't really be bothered to write something) we continue our journey into the hatred that is the Westboro Baptist Church.

Today, we'll be looking at "Australia's Evil Government". Now before we start we'll play a little game.

What do you think makes our government evil? Is it:

a) Our involvement in the War on Terror.
b) The transition from a more conservative government to a more liberal one.
c) Gay people.

If you didn't answer c. then you clearly haven't picked up anything from the last three parts of this series.

Of course it's gay people. It's always gay people and this is no exception:

Australia has made it number one priority throughout the last 30 years of the 20th century to make it ok to be a fag. The last law to make it legal to be a fag was passed in 1997. Not only do they say it’s not illegal to be a fag, let’s add on top of that a law to recognize those unnatural relationships.

Tasmania’s The Relationship Act was passed in 2003 stating: A relationships register for significant relationships & caring relationships (same sex couples or heterosexual de facto couples). These “relationships” provide for certain legal benefits such as property division, will, hospital visits, etc.

Let us start with the obvious. Their basis for the determination of "natural" is based on the beloved verse from Deuteronomy. That is it. Never mind that quite a few animals display homosexual behaviour nope.

Because we all know that the Bible is far more knowledgeable then anything that science has come up with...

Their second paragraph I assume is supposed to make people think "those damn Australians, I hope God sends them all to hell" or something like that (WANTED: Fundamentalist Christian to tell me what I am supposed to think here.) . However, all the law states, based on just that paragraph is that homosexual couples are able to get de facto status. Oh dear, gay people have the same rights as a group that this church would hate anyway based on what they think of about sex.

Quite a few places in the world already have such laws. There would be quite a few homosexual couples that would be quite happy to have such a status, in the same way that there are heterosexual couples that are quite happy with that status. But apparently that is endorsing some vague form of sin.

I guess it doesn't help when groups like Evangelicals Concerned Inc. exist that have their own, possibly better interpretation of the Bible which I only know of but can't actually prove to you right now.

When I can I will provide the evidence.

But let us continue

If you think those laws are bad enough…wait for this next part. That’s right ladies and gentleman; let us take a look behind the scenes at certain people who have taken over the Australian Government. These are the best and brightest out-of-the-closet fags and dykes in good old Australia!

Michael Kirby – Justice of the High Court of Australia
Shayne Mallard – City Council
Bob Brown – Senator, First open fag member of the Australian Parliament
Penny Wong – Senator
Andrew Barr – Legislative Assembly
Penelope Gail Sharpe – Legislative Council
John Hyde – Legislative Assembly
Louise Pratt – Legislative Council
Giz Watson – Legislative Council
Gary Singer – Deputy Lord Mayor
Thang Ngo – City Council

Very detailed there isn't it? It's also out of date.

Let's just fill in a few gaps here first, and explain some things for those who don't know much about Australian politics:

Shayne Mallard is a councillor for the City of Sydney.
Gary Singer was a Deputy Lord Mayor, of Melbourne.
Thang Ngo was a councillor of Fairfield in NSW.
Michael Kirby was until recently a HCA justice.
Senator Bob Brown is currently a Greens Senator for Tasmania.
Senator Penny Wong is a senator and also the Climate Change and Water Minister. She is also the first Asian born person and the first openly gay person to be a member of a Federal Cabinet. Incidentally she is also represents South Australia in the Senate, a state which has the fewest rights for homosexuals.
Andrew Barr is a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, and a member of the ACT Cabinet. He is the first openly gay person to be elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Penelope Gail Sharpe (who clearly prefers to be called Penny) is a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
John Hyde is a member of the WA Legislative Assembly. He is not to be confused with the WA Senator with the same name. He is the first openly gay man to be elected to WA Parliament.
Louise Pratt is now a member of the Senate, she was a member of the WA legislative council.
Giz Watson is a member of the WA Legislative Coucil.

Now based on what I have found, all (with the possible exception of Thang Ngo, I couldn't find anything on him) of these people are openly gay. But wow. Look how well they have infiltrated and "taken over" the Australian government. I guess Bob Brown, Penny Wong and Louise Pratt must be some unstoppable gay Labor-Greens power bloc in the Senate right?

Actually they make up less then 4% of the Senate. There are 76 members of the Senate so they have the potential to be outvoted by 73 other people.

So what we see here is some good old fashioned scaremongering. Except that it is crappy scaremongering. Because based on this 100% of the House of Representatives isn't homosexual. Really good work there huh?

October 10, 2008 – After four days and nights, Australia decides to decriminalize abortion in the state of Victoria. Parliament had such a tough decision to make…should we defy God or shouldn’t we? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Parliament had a tough time with this one; as a matter of fact, they had a “marathon sitting week.” Don’t worry - in the end they decided to spit in God’s face (shocker, I know) with a vote of 23-17! Shame on you Australia; you think you’re smarter than God about the matters of the womb. Think again. Your final destruction is nigh at hand. PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD!

What we see here is really nothing more then a temper tantrum from a four year old.

That is really all it is. Here we see the member of the WBC who wrote this complaining that they didn't get things "their way" even though they have no actual right to demand any change in Australia whatsoever.

But on to some bad science:

According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in Australia, there is need for a third gender. Not only can you mark female and male on official documents, you can mark "intersex" if you are transgender. WTF, mate?!? Here's a thought…how about if you just be thankful for what your God gave you. You can defy God and spit in His face all you want, but guess what? You can't change your chromosomes. Go ahead and mutilate yourselves and call your gender "intersex" it doesn't change the fact that you were either born with two X chromosomes or an X and a Y chromosome…you silly unthankful brutes!

People are either born with two X chromosomes or an X and a Y. Well yes, most of the time.

Women with Turner Syndrome don't fit in the XX/XY definition of male and female because they are XO. Yes, they don't have a second chromosome. They are women, but they don't fall into the classification given by the WBC.

Then there is XX male syndrome. This is where the sex chromosomes have a partial crossover during meiosis. They look like men. They may have the chromosomes of a woman but they look like a man.

It raises an interesting question here. Would a group like the Westboro Baptist Church call an XX male who is homosexual an abomination even though under the XX/XY system he is a woman?

The same line of reasoning would follow for a woman with Swyer syndrome only in this case it's a person who looks like a woman but has XY sex chromosomes.

Then we can talk about more abiguous ones like Klinefelter's Syndrome. This is an anomily where you get a man who is XXY.

What I am getting at here is that things are never as simple as you want it to be. I don't actually know the official stance of transgender people, I would have assumed that you would let them tick a "transgender" box, because there actually are intersex people in this world.

But I'm going to conclude with the bible verse they mention in the article. It is just before the tantrum:

Job 12:17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.

I'm actually confused here. I wonder if they mean "He" as "God" as the passage mentions or do they mean "he" as in "Satan" who only appears at the start of the book. I'm sorry to say that based on the context of the page either is technically a valid interpretation.

I do, however, get the funny feeling that this verse was only chosen because it mentions both councillors and judges.

A Response to the WBC Site "God Hates Australia" Part 3.

Welcome to Part 3 of my "response" to the Westboro Baptist Church.

If you're tuning in late, please read part 1 and part 2.

Part 3 today deals with "Australia's False Religious Systems".

I'm sure that most people are aware that by "False Religious Systems" the WBC really means "religions and denominations that don't follow our specific interpretation of the Bible".

70.28% of Australians are considered Christians, with the majority of that number being Catholics…which brings us to World Youth Day 2008!

We'll start with the obvious. Since a majority of Australian Christians are Catholics they have given a majority of the page to Catholic-bashing.

On the statistics as far as I can tell this number is wrong.

According to this pdf from the Australia Bureau of Statistics, according to the 2006 census the number of people who followed a Christian denomination was 63.8%.

They did actually get the majority religion right though. 25.8% of the population are Catholic. But if you followed a more traditional "Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox" breakdown of denominations, you would get 25.8%, 35.3% and 2.7% respectively, so there are more non-Catholics then there are Catholics but Catholics are the largest united denomination in Australia (5 126 900 Catholics of 12 685 800 people calling themselves Christians).

A point that I noticed that they didn't bring up was that there was actually an increase of 0.8% of Christians in general between 1996 to 2006, of which there was a 6.8% increase in Catholics but a -4.7%, -14.9% and -11.7% difference in that decade among the Anglicans, Uniting and "Presbyterian and Reformed" churches respectively.

You goofy Catholics think that if you go to an outside fair worshiping an old man that you will get to heaven. Stay away from idols! Stop worshiping the creature more than the Creator!

This is a common opinion of certain Protestant denominations of Catholics. In this case however the "idol" isn't actually Mary, it's the Pope.

Catholics don't worship the Pope, the belief is that he is the head of the organisation that was created by Jesus and that the Pope is the legitimate successor of St. Peter, who is considered the first Pope.

Quite a few denominations claim such apostolic succession some of whom are closer to the"truth" then others while others use it to give themselves an air of legitimacy.

Catholics do believe that they are worshipping the Creator, as they put it, but so does every other religion that claims that they are "the one true religion".

It is quite possible to claim that the WBC itself is guilty of the exact same thing, the difference being that their idol is none other then Phelps himself. As far as I can tell it appears that the members of the Church are strongly required to blindly follow and not argue with the interpretation and dogma that is created by Phelps. In esscence it seems that he sees himself as some sort of "Jesus" figure a view that technically contradicts his own interpretation.

Hello, can you say biggest pedophile machine in the world? Anyone with an ounce of sense would see that World Youth Day is an easy way for those old, ugly men to hook up with those young kids. Priests Rape Boys, people; the only reason you put your children in the hands of pedophiles is because you hate them. It doesn’t take a genius; keep your kids away from Catholic Priests!

I don't know whether it's the biggest paedophile machine in the world. I have been around priests before, I know quite a few people who have, and I do not know of a single person that has been abused by a member of the clergy.

Incidentally the logic from the page doesn't seem to follow. You give children to a paedophile because you don't like paedophiles?

But as pointed out before the WBC seems to be of the opinion that homosexuality leads to paedophilia, an opinion that has no basis at all but is not uncommon among the anti-gay community.

Don’t worry, for the other part of the Australian population (16.48%) they are considered to be non-religious or agnostic. These are some high-quality people in the great Down Under! WTF mate?!?

See, again, if they had bothered to do their research they would have been able to use the latest statistics then they would have made a better argument. It's actually 18.7% now. And that is an increase of 25.7% between 1996 to 2006.

But they are right, us non-religious or agnostic people are actually very nice and high-quality people unlike say Michael Guglielmucci a Pentecostal minister who pretended to have cancer and tricked people out of thousands of dollars.

The last thing that I don' t understand is why they didn't mention non-Christian denominations? Between 1996 to 2006 they had a whopping 79.3% change. Which Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism having a 109.6%, 69.4% and 120.2% increase over that period.

I honestly don't know why I'm mentioning this, but I guess it has to do with their intellectual laziness, or perhaps a lack of creativity, in trying to explain how Australia is evil religiously.

Lastly, the city that I am from, Adelaide, is known as the "City of Churches". About 24% of us have no religious affiliation. I think that says it all.

I'm skipping the Bible quotes because there is actually very little to say about them.

Stay tuned for Part 4, where we'll talk about their page on the Government. Which you can find here.

A Response to the WBC Site "God Hates Australia" Part 2.

In other news before I start, I thought I might point out that it seems that they never actually managed to make it to Australia. Considering that they had a single protester there on the 21^st I guess means that they wanted to go UK --> Australia and then figured out that they couldn't bend time (takes about 14 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and it took us an extra 7 to get to Adelaide, I guess that it would be longer to Melbourne).

Anyway, I'm not going to just give up on what I started so we go onto part 2 of our "response" (it's really more of an analysis. That's what I get for writing it at around 2 am). Part 1 may be found here.

The entire section is called "God's Wrath Revealed Against Australia".

I suggest that you go to it this time. This page is the reason why I'm thinking "Poe's Law". They have a youtube clip from The Chaser on there. Unless they are part of "God's wrath" then hopefully he can wrath us with more funny stuff and less terrible stuff.

I'm sorry to say it but you will have to read that page. I'm just going to post snippets.

We'll start with "Bible Quote Context Time":

Judges 2:15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

1Sa 12:15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.

The first quote is from a passage about the unfaithfulness of Israel. Apparently the people turned away from God and he got annoyed, incited a bunch of enemies to attack the country and kind of supported those enemies by making it so that Israel would lose.

The second from Samuel is a farewell address from Samuel. Essentially it's one of the many passages where they aren't actually screwing around with the context in any way. It really is a passage that says "worship God or suffer" and goes on to have Samuel ask God to show his might by sending a storm during the harvest.

Their first example of the supposed "Wrath" of God is of course the Victorian bushfires. As I mentioned here they are claiming that it's because of gay people, while others claim that it isn't.

In traditional WBC showing of empathy they have this to say about the 209 people who have died:

The news reports claim that this is Australia's deadliest brush fire! It makes our hearts rejoice to see that you generation of brute beasts are getting rewarded based upon the fact that you spend your days chasing your lusts. The Lord is at the door and He WILL NOT allow you to continue to live in your filth without executing His justice! We have been warning you for years that your filthy manner of life is pissing God off, now OPEN YOUR EYES and see the destruction that you have laid upon yourselves because you absolutely REFUSE to just OBEY!

I'm sure that everyone else's hearts will rejoice when something bad happens to their "church".

In typical fringe religion style "refuse to just obey" means that Australia as a whole has refused to obey the "interpretation" of the Bible by Fred Phelps.

The reason for the Chaser clip is as follows:

You treated the servants of God terribly, sending one of your dirty fag bastards to interrupt our peaceful protests by sexually molesting one of our members and video-graphing your shameful conduct. You then, to add insult to your criminal injury, showed that video to thousands on Youtube around the world (see below), thereby desecrating the sacred worship of the temple of God at Westboro Baptist Church.

Notice how they, like other denominations of Abrahamaic faiths consider themselves to be "servants of God".

They also call Charles Firth, the man who "sexually molested" one of their members a "fag bastard" ignoring the small fact that he is actually married. To a woman. But I guess because she is an ALP supporter they probably wouldn't like her because she must be a communist or something.

The clip in question is below:

Now they claim that they "showed [it] to thousands on Youtube". Well what exactly are they doing? Whoever actually goes on to that section of the "God Hates Australia" website will see it as well. Seems a bit hypocritical to me but then again I don't expect the WBC to actually be logical.

Also note how they consider the picket to be "sacred worship". Under such logic I could create a church where I can beat the utter crap out of someone and call it "sacred worship". Firth encountered the people on a picket, not in their church. But I guess they are trying to play some sort of card regarding religion that doesn't apply anywhere outside their own little "congregation".

Continuing on:

And, it is written, “If any man shall defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy,” 1 Corinthians 3:17.

Notice how they are linking themselves to the "Temple of God", and yet their interpretation is utterly wrong. On top of that they've managed to actually quote mine the bible. You can find the verse here to check.

It states fully:

¹⁷If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

The verse, as you can see, might not refer to any physical building at all. I don't know the current interpretations of the Bible, but in this case the interpretation might be that the temple is either a human, or the Corinthian Church. It could be the church in general, and I'm sorry to say it, but it's more likely to be an organisation that the WBC hates then themselves.

The rest of the page lists certain disasters that have happened over the years, including the heat wave before the fires, storms in the Hunter Valley in 2007, the bushfires on the Eyre Peninsula in 2005, the Bali Bombings (which isn't even in Australia so I don't know why it counts), Thredbo in 1997, fires on the East Coast in '93, and an earthquake in '89.

I do note that they didn't say anything about Stuart Diver, the only survivor from the Thredbo landslide, but the way they word it they make it sound like he's dead. I think someone should tell him. For those unaware, the landslide killed 18 people, including Sally Diver, the wife of Stuart, it turned out to have been caused by water from a leaking water main. In a way I think it might be for the best because of the implication that it would have.

The last thing that I will say about this page is that it appears that the way WBC see things is that people who die don't have to be gay, or tolerate gay people, instead God is punishing Australia in general. But the question remains, why is it that if God is actually punishing Australia for it's stance on homosexuality then why isn't God using more directed punishments? Why bother punishing in a rather random and inconsistent pattern?

Continue on to Part 3.

A Response to the WBC Site "God Hates Australia" Part 1.

Before I begin, as far as I can tell the following is actually a site that belongs to the Westboro Baptist Church. Looking up on whois gives me the same result for the following site and the American counterpart (which is linked to from their main site). Otherwise it is the most elaborate form of Poe's Law that I have ever encountered.

Without further adieu I shall introduce you to God Hates Australia part of the God Hates the World website.

At the moment I'm going to write about this.

Their first section on why God apparently hates Australia.

The first subsection is, and no surprises here, is entitled "Fags":

FAGS

When you throw the standard that the Lord your God set since the foundation of the world right out the window, what you get is a country that has NO morals! Every year that evil country known as Australia holds numerous Fag Pride Parades. Here are just a few examples of how these arrogant beasts roll: Pride March Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Pride March Adelaide, SA, Australia: Gay Mardi Gras Parade, Sydney, Australia.

Psalm 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

Let's start with the obvious here. Morality is quite subjective. What one society considers immoral may be considered to be moral in another society. We can see throughout different societies similar themes appear, justice for example, not killing someone as another. The main "morals" that Phelps and his ilk are going on about refer to the Biblical laws regarding sex. I do not believe that I have ever seen, heard, or read, about the WBC going on about people wearing clothes of two different materials, or eating prawns. If someone can show me evidence to the contrary I will gladly point it out. WBC "morals" appear to be ones where you can't divorce, be abstinant until marriage, and Leviticus 18:22.

For some fun according to Wikipedia the US has 141 LGBT events (if I counted correctly), Australia has according to Wikipedia 13 of them. I don't really have a comment here, I just thought it would be interesting to point it out.

By the way WBC, there are groups in Australia that hate gay people as much as you do, I find it interesting that you don't talk about them. Perhaps that might destroy the image of the "oppressed religious sect with outspoken views" that you like to try and press.

The verse from Psalm 81 is a psalm entitled "God's Appeal to Stubborn Israel".

The next section please:

DIVORCE/REMARRIAGE

46% of Australian marriages end in divorce. What is wrong with you people!?!

De 22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

Take that and smoke it on your barbies!

Do you think the Lord was kidding when He said: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9)? Here’s the answer, NO, He was not kidding; now what?

From the Australian Bureau of Statistics the crude divorce rate in Australia was 2.3 per 1000 in 2007, from the excel document provided they state as a comparison that in 2006 the crude divorce rate was 3.6 per 1000. According to this site the Australian and US divorce rates (as a percentage in 2002) were different by 0.2%. Why not work on fixing the divorce rate in your own country instead of bashing someone elses.

The Deuteronomy verse applies to adultery, which is relevant to the WBC because they don't believe in divorce. Funnily enough according to the Bible the very verse they quote is actually grounds for getting a divorce as well. They are basing their divorce opinions most likely on Matthew 5:31-32 which actually contradicts Deuteronomy 24:1 which basically says that a man can divorce his wife "if he finds something objectionable about her", gives a pretty broad range of reasons for divorce for at least a man there.

As for Mark 10:9, that is just the same as the verse from Matthew that I mentioned, except with the "adultery" part removed. So which one is it? Do we listen to Deuteronomy, which gives really broad grounds, Matthew which gives a single ground, or Mark which gives no grounds?

ABORTION

This may shock some of you, alright maybe only the ones that have their heads in the sand, but abortion is legal in all circumstances even when a reason is not given.

That’s right dear friends; when you live in Australia you can fornicate your brains out and when you’re done with all your filth, just kill that child that occurred because of your nastiness!

You don’t mess with the matters of the womb…at the end of the day it is still murder. You killed that child…their blood is on your hands! You are murderers plain and simple.

John8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Firstly, in Australia abortion is a State, not a Federal issue. The only consitancy throughout Australia is that abortion is legal when circumstances arise where the health of the mother is at risk. The only state where you can argue that abortion is legal with no questions asked is in Victoria up to 24 weeks (thus the rubbish pouring out of Danny Nalliah's mouth) and it is also legal in the ACT. In NSW and WA it is legal only for health issues surrounding the mother, economic circumstances, fetal defects, mental health issues, rape and apparently social factors and also in WA up to 20 weeks. In SA, NT, and Tasmania the law does not allow abortion for economic and social factors. SA allows abortion for those factors up to 23 weeks. Finally Queensland, which has the strictest abortion laws in the country does not allow an abortion for fetal defects, the only exception is if the baby would die soon after birth anyway.

Each state has other requirements like mandatory counselling in WA, to the abortion must be performed in a hospital and be approved by two physicians (SA).

Seriously, it takes 5 minutes to even do the most basic search on the subject.

PROSTITUTION

In Queensland, private sex work and prostitution in a brothel are legal; however, unlicensed brothels and massage parlors used for prostitution are strictly prohibited….oh now you pretend to have a standard! You aren’t fooling anyone!

In New South Wales, prostitution is legal except near churches, schools, hospitals and similar venues. Does anyone else see the big elephant standing in the middle of the room here? Anyone….anyone? You upside down people think that if you keep it from the eyes of church-goers and children that the Lord can’t see you? Oh, how totally wrong you are!

Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

What idiocy we see here. In Phelps' world there wouldn't be prostitution possibly. That's assuming that his secret sex stopping police aren't corrupt or anything. If the crime world has taught us anything it's that no matter what you do you will still have crime, even in the most puritanical society that you could conceive of.

The fact is that in Queensland has a standard, and it would work a hell of a lot better then a WBC "standard". We know that organised crime will find a way to take control of illegal business, just look at the US during Prohibition, and they have far fewer standards then the Queensland government would.

I honestly would have thought that they would have mentioned SA here. Just to clarify, wheras our interstate counterparts have a vague idea of what should be done we don't. Essentially the police ignore the law regarding prostitution unless the brothels do something illegal that isn't prostitution and then they do something. It's all because we have a large enough section of parliament who want to keep it illegal and the Rann government doesn't want to revisit the issue.

Until last year WA had a strange situation where the brothels were located in certain places with the tacit approval of the police, then they passed legislation that decriminalised it.

Your "big elephant" only seems to apply to those who believe in a God. What a stupid elephant. Then again this is the WBC, what do you expect?

ADOPTION

Fags are allowed to adopt children in the Australian Capitol Territory and Western Australia. Stepparent adoption is allowed in Tasmania….um…..ok!?! There are still certain provinces in Australia that don’t allow same-sex couples to adopt children….it won’t be long before that will change! These evil beasts aren’t satisfied until everyone bows down to their disgusting lusts!

Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Firstly, we don't have provinces, we have states and territories. Get it right, we aren't Canada.

Second, I can see that you seem to be talking about SA (NT is no apart from "exceptional circumstances"). Of course you are, since we are backwards land. We must be some sort of ideal state for you, if only we weren't part of that fag loving rest of Australia right?

And why shouldn't it change? I don't see the problem at hand, and I think that it is wrong that we aren't doing something about it here in SA. Many of the other states have laws that allow adoption of some sort or another, so why shouldn't we?

By the sounds of this it seems that WBC believes that gay people are also paedophiles, I had no idea. I thought paedophiles were paedophiles.

Bible quote wise I'm guessing that they consider us to be Judah, the nation that the verse is referring to.

So we've reached the end of this first page of filth, just four more to go. Part 2 may be found here.

WBC, Hatred and the Victorian Bushfires

I should have been more detailed in my research, and I would have found what I wanted.

When I wrote this post I had initially wanted to see what the Westboro Baptist Church had to say and compare that to what Danny Nalliah had to say.

Turns out he's coming to Australia. I'm guessing that he would have already arrived by now so he can be nice and fresh for the picket tomorrow, on the national day of mourning.

Don't believe me, read their press release.

This just infuriates me. I think that I am lucky that I'll be in Adelaide while they are wherever the hell they happen to be, which is Melbourne.

I found a website too, God Hates Australia, part of the "God hates the world" portal thingy. As far as I can tell it does belong to the WBC, the link to the American one is exactly the same as the link from the main WBC site.

It's funny how religious people can boil down the fires into "God's punishment for X" or "God's punishment against X". To Catch The Fire Ministries it's abortion that God killed all those people for, but to WBC it's homosexuals.

If God hated abortion then why weren't the fires only affecting places where abortions can be given "Pastor" Nalliah, and if the fires were, as you claim Phelps, God's hatred of homosexuals then why didn't it affect areas that are known for homosexuality instead of just some vast swathe of Victoria?

And these people wonder why they are criticised so harshly.

About Bloody Time

They've finally announced the winner of the bid to build a desalination plant in SA.

(see title)

This is something that should have been done ages ago, I understand some of the issues involved included things like what will happen to the salt and other stuff they remove from the water which I'm assuming will be just dumped back into the gulf instead of using it for something, but we really need to lower our dependence on Murray water.

I'm assuming that our friends further upstream will probably use whatever we won't be using later on to grow rice or whatever water intensive crops that people in places like Deniliquin grow now.

But if I remember correctly when the government started taking tenders there was a big uproar of some sort (it's Adelaide, what do you expect we've become far more conservative now then we were in earlier times) over the standard "environmental issues" beyond "what happens if we dump the concentrated salt in the gulf" cries of "white elephant" (again, everything here is a white elephant. New hospital? White elephant. Stadium that would allow us to, if Australia gets is, host World Cup games? White elephant. I'd assume an elephant enclosure in the zoo would probably be a white elephant as well) and a bunch of people who thought that Mobil, who owned the area that they will be building this plant, would want to come back and would need a refinery again.

The latter is an absolute joke because I'm sure that the oil refineries prefer to ship our oil in from Singapore.

But we need this thing. The countries along the Persian Gulf have desalination plants and I haven't seen their societies crumble or whatever calamity was supposed to befall us, and they are doing quite fine.

But at least we are now one step closer to lowering our dependence on Murray water.

Idiots and the Bushfires

I feel certain that I can say that you would have to be living in a cave on Mars with no form of communication to have not heard about the bushfires.

Let's start with this. Two people have already been charged for stealing bushfire appeal money. One, a 36 year old man broke into a school and stole money. A school for FSMs sake. The other thief was a 16 year old boy.

Now that is despicable. People gave money to help people that actually need and deserve the money. You stole from people who were denied help from Centrelink because they didn't have any ID.

But that isn't the worst of it.

The Skeptic Zone had a segment on some idiots suggesting that homeopathy should be used to treat burns to burn victims. Because that sounds like a very good idea doesn't it. Let's use a form of "medicine" that doesn't work at all just because some idiots don't like proper medicine for reasons that make no sense whatsoever.

And how we have people charged for looting. Brilliant isn't it? People have lost everything and now there are bastards going around (allegedly) stealing what little these people have that survived the fires. Isn't humanity grand.

I think that the worst of it has to be Pastor Danny Nalliah. He is the head of "Catch the Fire Ministries" and was a The Sydney Morning Herald stating that:

"The Bible is very clear, [i]f you walk out of God's protection and turn your back on Him, you are an open target for the devil to destroy."

And what he said even managed to turn what you could call his most powerful supporter Peter Costello against him.

So I'm going to say congratulations to Danny Nalliah. You've managed to politicise an issue that has no link at all to what you believe, and you've pissed off many many people in the process. But at least you show that you uphold the religious values that the Family First Party is known for.

For those that would like more information on the fires themselves, according to the ABC (as of 13/2/09 at 3:19 PM (GMT+9:30)) the death toll stands at 181 dead, and 7000 homeless, of which 3000 are living in tents. Police believe that a serial arsonist may have been responsible for some of the fires. I said here that I believe that if an arsonist set at least one fire that they have the blood of all those who died in the fires on their hands.

The people that I have mentioned above are in the minority. The greatest praise has to go to the Country Fire Authority for their valiant work in containing a large number of bushfires and trying to help all those people. The doctors of the burn wards around Victoria for their work in helping those who have suffered horrible burns from the bushfires and the police for keeping law and order in the affected areas. Lastly the Red Cross and other organisations like that who are on the scene doing everything they can to help people affected by the fires.

Australians in general are helping out by donating money to the various bushfire appeals.

I'm going to say something that many people have been saying. If you would like to help please donate to an appeal such as The Australian Red Cross, and those who can should really donate blood.

If you want you can also donate money to the CFA and if you are in Australia it is possible to donate to the equivalent in your state. I know the CFS had to contain fires that were not as deadly but had the possibility of being as dangerous as the Victorian ones, and the Rural Fire Service (NSW for those playing at home) have sent men to Victoria to help the CFA. If you fell like it these organisations have volunteer brigades (the CFS, CFA and RFS are I believe primarily volunteer) that you can join and help keep the country safe.

To The Skeptic Zone

I'm calling you out again Mr. Saunders and the rest of The Skeptic Zone. I feel like a git for saying this but I think that it should be said because I feel it undercuts your message.

(For those that don't know what I'm going on about go here.)

Usually you have a good podcast but I'm calling you out on your reference on the Victorian Bushfires.

You said:

Now remember this is the worst disaster in Australian peacetime history.

It was later clarified by one of your colleagues (sorry, I'm not good with matching voices to names but I'm assuming Dr. Dunlop who also said it in her segment.)

See that bolded bit is the bit that I'm taking issue to. It seems that many people are saying that, and all of you who do are wrong.

Disaster is defined as:

a calamitous event, esp. one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, as a flood, airplane crash, or business failure.

Now, I noticed that you guys were being skeptical throughout the segment, but not here.

I'm assuming that you mean "worst natural disaster in living memory", because the worst disaster in Australia isn't a bushfire.

The worst disaster according to the EMA Disasters Database would be the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918-19. If you consider that to be a wartime disaster then the worst disaster is the polio epidemic of 1946-55. Even the bubonic plague epidemic of 1900-10 which killed 550 people.

The heatwaves of 1938-39 and 1895-96 killed about the same number of people as had died in the bushfires (and they were pretty much in the same area).

The worst single civil maritime disaster in peacetime was the wrecking of the Cataraqui on King Island, while the worst cyclone was back in 1899 in Bathurst Bay in Queensland.

By the way, looking for information I found this.

But I don't know what people consider to be a disaster.

P.S. You are probably thinking "git" here, but please go and read what I have to say here. I felt that it was better to keep these things separate from each other.

Happy 200th Mr. Darwin

Today Charles Darwin would be 200. But he won't be because he is dead.

So that leads us to the question: If Charles Darwin came up with such an important theory then why is he dead?

Ok, so it doesn't.

But I'm sure that there is a creationist out there who would say something like that (a la Homer Simpson).

But we sit here today on the birthday of one of the most important scientists to have ever lived and we still see people who make up lies about him, or conveniently ignore parts of his life because it doesn't suit their agenda.

If you go to Darwin 200.org you can write a birthday message to Mr. Darwin, we all know that he won't read them but it's the thought that counts right?

This year is also the 150^th anniversary of On The Origin of Species as well.

At least we see the Poms doing things for this important year in biology. Unlike say, the city of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, and named after the man.

Update: Even the Americans seem to be doing something. It's annoying that I don't seem to be able to find anything in Australia for it. It isn't like Darwin ever came to Australia (I'm looking at you Hobart and Albany). But there is this article here with some rather funny ranting from an "Andrew of Sydney".

Australian Customs and Lines

I honestly think that it is easier to leave Australia then it is to enter it. Leaving Australia is as follows:

1. Fill out a customs form.
2. Wait about 3 mins in a line.
3. Customs person plays on computer and says that you are ok to leave.
4. Go to waiting room and wait for plane.

However, entering Paris from Charles de Gaulle Airport is as follows:

1. Go to foreigner line and wait about 5 mins.
2. Get passport stamped.
3. Enter the EU.

It was 5 am when we entered France, there was one booth open with two people in there stamping passports.

It was even easier leaving from Frankfurt. We waited about a minute and then got our passports stamped and then left.

Malaysia was interesting.

KLIA has a very large customs area. I think there were about 20 of the two people booths open and about half of them were staffed. No waiting in line at all. You filled out your customs form on the flight, they stamped your passport you entered the country.

Leaving was about the same. Most of the customs booths were open (and this was during the Chinese New Year as well, you'd be amazed how empty Kuala Lumpur was considering how many people there aren't Chinese) no lines, no waiting, a couple of stamps and you were out of there.

Then I arrived back in Australia.

My customs form was already filled out on the plane. I had to wait about 10 mins in line because I didn't know (and I guess nearly everyone else didn't either) that you could go to a "self service" thing. They had about 10 booths but they could only hold one person. There were three open booths helping Australians and two for foreigners. In typical Australian fashion everything was slow because of the bureaucracy.

I could understand if this was the proper customs section. That bit was surprisingly efficient. We went in, answered a few questions, and left. That was it. But this was the bit where you get your passport checked before you go and get your bags. That was frustraitingly slow.

It seems to be an Australian phenomena. I had to go to the Centrelink office recently and I learned that they had renovated it. Before they had many sections each with at least one person there to help you (there were places for more but usually it was one person). No more. Now they've changed it to one counter for the elderly and carers and two for everyone else. They melded three sections into one "general enquiries" section just to increase the amount of time you waste in lines.

That sums up dealings with the Australian Government. You spend far more time waiting in lines here then you would over in other countries.

Bravo Australian Government. Bravo.

Victorian Bushfires

130 dead according to the ABC the number has gone down from the 135 reported by the BBC.

Thousands of people have lost their homes or are injured.

The news stated that a man has been charged for allegedly starting some of the fires.

I honestly believe that if a person in Victoria deliberately set one fire in the state that they have the blood of 130 people on their hands. They forced the CFA to divert their attention from other fires to deal with ones set by people who what? Enjoy seeing the suffering of their fellow human beings? Some perverse cry for attention?

I feel no sympathy for such people, nor would I feel sad if such a person had something bad happen to him.

However it's not all nature and arsonists. Stupid people are also to blame.

Cars have ashtrays for a reason. You also put cigarette butts in there so you don't have to throw them out of the car. Clearly we have a subset of the population who are too bloody stupid to put two and two together, or don't like cigarette butts messing up their ashtrays.

And then you see fires like the one in Bendigo.

All because some prick decided that the dry ground on a day with a Total Fire Ban was a far safer place to chuck a cigarette butt then put it in an ashtray. It isn't like an ashtray is an optional extra for your car or anything.

I really feel for the people affected by the fires. Some have lost all their possessions, others have lost family and friends. I hope people take a good hard look at themselves before they go and throw cigarette butts out of cars, or deliberately start fires, and think of the possibly consequences.

But this is Australia. They won't because they honestly don't give a shit do they?

Tarquinia

If you are in Italy and you have your own way of getting around I really suggest that you take a trip to Tarquinia. Tarquinia is along the coast of Italy, and was one of the major Etruscan cities.

There is a Necropolis there with some of the finest decorated tombs in Tuscany.

If you leave Rome head out towards Sutri (the road isn't an autostrada though) and spend some time looking at the amphitheatre there. It might not be as fancy as the Colosseum but it is one that was hewn out of the tuff. There are some tombs there of a different variety and a church that was converted from a Mithreaum.

As I stated before the tombs in Tarquinia are very finely decorated. They have a few recurring elements. Feasting scenes for example are popular for tombs built when times were good. There are other scences though, one is decorated as if it were a forest. Another, known as the 'hunting and fishing tomb', is decorated in hunting and fishing motifs. There was one tomb that was influenced by Bacchic rites with one picture of a woman being whipped (Etruscan S&M?).

Many of the tombs have a happy/peaceful feel to them. There was one though that was built when the Romans started to increase pressure on the Etruscan cities. It had a family being led into the underworld by an Etruscan spirit of the dead. It seemed out of place and sad.

But it is worth seeing, however you need plenty of time since they close at 2pm. We needed to move on so we only saw the tombs, but there is a museum as well.

Jason Spiehler - Tour Guide

So, you're in eternal Rome, and you want to go for a tour. So you need to find yourself a guide. The best person to guide you around Rome is an American from Louisiana.

No, you read that right.

The man in question is named Jason Spiehler.

He is an art historian and theologian and is quite possibly the best tour guide in Rome.

He is even recommended by name by the New York Times.

Finding him starts at the end of our first day in Rome. We had been to the Colosseum, and we were wandering around the Forum when, a tour appeared near the Rostra Divi Iulii. The man, an American, was both informative and entertaining, something that is very important when it comes to a tour. The tour was free, so we tagged along and got to learn more about the Forum.

As a side note, when one of the people outside the Colosseum said that there were no signs in the Forum he wasn't kidding. There were a few signs, but they only said what the things were. For someone who doesn't know anything about the forum you would be hard pressed to know who the hell Phocas was, and why did he have a column in the forum, or what the hell most of the buildings were. It makes a really good selling point for the tour guides, because you are forced to pay a more expensive price for a tour. I'm not lying here, I saw nothing for an official tour of the forum, and the Colosseum official tour is €4. It probably works out cheap if you are not an EU citizen, but not if you are eligible for the discount.

Anyway. We learned about Phocas and at the Curia we learned about the cheap, corner cutting technique used to build it. There was quite a bit of stuff we learned, and it all culminated with him reciting Shakespeare at the foot of the Temple of Jupiter.

There was a night tour but we didn't go on that. Instead we decided to forgoe the Palatine Hill (the ticket is valid for two days) and check out some of the other well known sights in Rome (Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, Castel Sant' Angelo etc.) and go to the Vatican for his Vatican tour (which did cost money though). Firstly it was worth it. It decided to rain about the time the tour started, so it worked out alright since we were inside. Secondly, after the partial tour that we went on with him in the forum it seemed like a really stupid idea not to take up the offer.

An interesting tour followed, and we never noticed that we spent three hours in the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Someone with the credentials that Jason has makes it really interesting to look at and understand the artwork that is there.

I now understand far better then I ever would works like Raphael's School of Athens or the symbolism of the fresco of the Sistine Chapel (hint: Jonah = Jesus). Or a rather funny tale involving the painting of The Last Jugement where Biagio de Cesena insulted the painting Michelangelo portrayed him as Minos, in the hell part of the picture with ass' ears and a snake biting his penis. When Cesena complained to the Pope the response was that he couldn't do anything because the Pope is not in charge of hell.

If you ever get a chance to go on a tour of the Vatican (or find him in the forum, or on a night walk) go. Do it. You won't regret it.

[The title is there because of laziness, I can't think of a decent one. So this crappier one will have to do, sorry.]

Student Discounts

Won't be given in Italy.

That is what I have learned, in this, my third part of travel stuff.

I'm pretty sure that this isn't entirely true. But it is true at least if you go to more famous things.

I suspect that this is true in most cases for more famous things. In Paris, which isn't in Italy, you won't get a discount when you go to the Louvre. I don't know why, I mean it isn't like they get millions of people going there each year to see things, but you don't.

You do at the Catacombs, and at Invalides though.

The Rembranthuis has a discount of about €2.80 for students which is good, compared to €1.50 at the Catacombs and €2 at Invalides.

However, I don't remember getting one at the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum. And to be honest the saving at Neuschwanstein was €1, which incidentally was the same saving as in Walhalla.

Italy however seems to work on EU citizenship. I may be living in Australia but I am technically a citizen of the EU under article 17 (1) of the Treaty of Rome. I didn't have to prove it in Rome and the Necropolis at Tarquinia (something I should write on), but I did in Florence, so I paid the full price because the consulate for the relevant country of which I am a citizen of (as well as Australia) didn't have a fingerprint machine and I couldn't be bothered paying $100 for a temporary one to save about $30.

The student discounts are ok, but I've found that you don't need to get an International Student card thingy. Places didn't accept them, and other places, like Walhalla for example, were happy enough to accept a student ID from the university.

However, the discounts don't seem to work for students over 26. Invalides, the Vatican Museum and a bunch of other places have an upper age limit of 26. The places in Germany didn't do such a thing which was good. I saw this limit annoy one man at the ticket counter in the Vatican for that reason. I didn't have to worry.

Catacomb and Ossuary

Take a look at this interesting picture that I took in Paris.

"So what Wildy? It's just a bad picture of a street sign, why are you wasting my time?" most likely what you are thinking, but bear with me.

Like the sign below it, these were taken in Paris. However I was under the street when I took it.

Welcome to a picture from the Catacombs of Paris.

I don't know how many people know of it, but there are tunnels underneath the Paris. Initially they were used for quarrying limestone which went into the construction of the city above. Yes, you heard me right, they used the very rock that the city was built on to build the city. Doesn't sound very logical huh?

In the 1800s when the city started to collapse from the tunnels they sent workers down there to reinforce, and strengthen the tunnels. These street signs were a useful way to allow a worker to find his location in the labyrinth of tunnels.

Over time the catacombs have been used as a quarry, some tunnels, a hiding place during the revolution, transport tunnels for the Resistance and the Nazi troops during WWII a church and an Ossuary.

When the tunnels were being strengthened the government also thought it would be a good idea to empty out the cemeteries, which were getting too full, and pile the bones into the catacombs. They did, and along the way they consecrated the area and made a chapel.

The remains of about 6 million Parisians lie within these catacombs, which are lined with skulls and femurs mainly, along with plaque things with stuff that I can't understand in French, and Bible quotes that I can't understand in Latin.

Somewhere among these bones are also victims of the Terror, nobles, a lawyer to the King, a handmaiden of the Queen, enemies of Robespierre and also Robespierre himself. When the cemetery was emptied the remains of Robespierre were moved to the Ossuary as well and were lost among the remains of other Parisians including those who he had sent to their deaths.
The catacombs are located on Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy and the walk through the catacombs takes about an hour.

There are two spiral staircases that you have to walk on and the area before the Ossuary shows you the reinforcing work that was undertaken as well as some sculptures of palaces on an island somewhere.

On the way out you can see areas where the tunnels had caved in and subsequently cleared, leaving a bell shaped roof.

If you do what I did, go see the former site of the Bastille first. Then walk across the Seine and check out their Natural History Museum (with a statue of Lamarck...) If you don't go to the other museum there, go to the metro stop outside the McDonalds and head to the Catacombs. They are right across from the Metro station (but you have to go above ground first).

Finally, sorry for the crappy pictures. I used my phone on night mode. I wasn't the one carrying the camera.