Sunrise Political Debate

I never expected to see those three words in the same sentence. For foreigners who happen to read this Sunrise is one of those breakfast shows, I usually have that playing in the morning because David Koch's voice keeps me up. Anyway, they pointed out that many people didn't know who they were voting for and had their own little "debate" between Wendy Francis from Family First and Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party.

This was the debate:



Now they covered a few issues from each party. They discussed Family First's idea for "G-rated" billboards. The Sex Party's idea for ending the tax exempt status for religion (that's all religion not just certain religions) and they also discussed each sides opinions on the proposed internet filter and gay marriage.

Essentially they pretty much disagreed on everything, but they both agreed on a Royal Commission that looks at sex abuse in all areas, even the sex industry, something that the Sex Party were happy to mention in a press release. However Patten (the leader of the ASP) suggested a commission looking just at religion.

On gay marriage Francis' argument was basically "the Marriage Act states this so that's the way it should be", and stated that marriage was very important to Australia.

The outdoor advertising thing was the more enlightening thing. Essentially Francis came across as saying "I want this because I don't want to have to explain, to my young children, what certain words mean."

Although she did say that "Australian Sex Party" would be ok on a billboard, it doesn't mesh with her intent. The little kid is still going to ask "mummy, what's sex?" regardless of whether it's from an ad for the ASP or one of those ghastly "want longer lasting sex?" billboards (their solution? A nasal spray).

There is very little to say on the internet filter. That was probably the weakest point from Patten, probably because she got some of the information wrong. One of the criticisms of the leaked blacklist (some of which I wrote about here and here) was that as well as blocking sites that had things like child porn, it was also blocking legal adult content and websites on other legal content. Patten came across as saying that the blacklist didn't have any illegal content on it at all.

Overall though I would have to say that the winner was the Sex Party. Although Francis would disagree though. Apparently there was a phone poll that said that Family First won.

I know that some people think that Family First won. I personally have trouble seeing it. Francis made a big song and dance about the ASP being a lobby group for what can best be described as "Big Porno". She also seemed to think that ending tax exempt status for religions would affect charities like Lifeline or the Salvation Army even though nobody has said that they would be affected.

I also don't think that it's ok for a cathedral to spend millions on a tower when there are homeless nearby because the Salvo's feed them.

Also, I know quite a few people who do not consider being homosexual a "lifestyle choice".

I'm not alone when it comes to saying who won. On Youtube here or here most of the commenters said that the ASP won. Same goes with the people on Crikey and even on Channel 7's thread asking about the winner.

To finish there are two other things I would like to point out. First is this from Catherine Deveny and I suggest you read the comment from James L in this SMH article .

Westall conspiracy

If conspiracy theorists have taught me anything it's that there are no coincidences.

I saw an ad on TV for some show on Sci Fi about the Westall UFO, and what happens to be this week's Skeptoid? That's right, the Westall UFO.

Clearly this means that Brian Dunning is being paid by Sci Fi to get people to search for the UFO and learn about the show since there is no other explanation.
















Now to go cash my cheques from Sci Fi and Big Pseudoscience...

Porn at 9pm?

What is wrong with Christians?

Do they really think that commercial stations are going to show porn on their channels?

The group in question is called Family Voice Australia.

And they clearly do not know what porn is.

No free to air channel in Australia, and this is including SBS, who are known for showing films with more sexual content then the others, will ever show porn at 9pm. Not now, and not in the near future.

I have to wonder if these groups think of themselves as the "only moral people in the country/world/universe"? Or perhaps they have too much grease lying around and have decided to use it to make more slippery slopes? Either way their argument is really, really, really dumb.

I think that Sue Turnbull of La Trobe University sums it up the best:

"If this particular group don't know what real pornography looks like, then maybe they should see some, so that they can actually make the kinds of distinctions that the people that are doing this classification make every day," she said.

The Price Of Fundamentalism?

It's from an old episode of Trading Spouses, so it's not the latest news but it does raise a valid point.

I'm going to have to ask you to go and watch this video first. It's a little loud, and also somewhat bigoted.

From what I can gather, and from a vague understanding of those types of shows I think that the scene is the "homecoming". I'm sure that the family probably thought that it would be like all the other shows, the mother, Marguerite Perrin, would be all happy to be home and it would be all love and happiness and the like.

If you watched the video you know how it turned out.

Personally I can't help but feel sorry for the family. Looking at the faces it just seems that they've seen a side of their mother/wife that they either haven't seen before or was part of the "it wasn't that bad" sort of thing.

I suspect that other people have found, and still do find, it funny.

I don't, and I don't think I ever will.

This is a person who has become blinded by her "faith". I suspect that it's "faith" because it sure isn't faith. All we saw there was bigotry wrapped in religion. Nothing else.

But it's the loved ones in this case that are affected by this woman. She let her own prejudices blind her to everything that she loves and should hold dear to her and turn a moment that should have been nice go sour because of it.

But in a world where there are people who take their faith to such an extreme you have to ask how often do they let their "faith" hurt those that they love?

And why is it that for some people such "faith" is something to look up to?

The One?

I'm entering this discussion a bit late. I read about it a while ago and didn't bother about it.

Over on Thinking is Real there is a series of posts on the topic. The link is to episode 1.

I'm watching the show as I write this.

The first section involves "psychics" "diagnosing" random people. By which I mean they said what injuries they had.

I would like to know how long these people had to scope out their targets before they "diagnosed" them.

Now they are going to do the same thing in the studio.

Too bad this isn't live.

Guest #1, had a kidney transplant.

The reiki guy said abdomen but said the intestines.

The leather girl said kidneys but was deliberately vague about it (saying "I'm not a doctor").

Guest #2 had cancer and glaucoma etc. He was a smoker.

Reiki guy pointed out smoking.

I missed the other psychic's prediction though. I think he said something about it being somewhat right.

Guest #3 was an amputee.

Blond Girl failed.

Reiki guy said dancing, but said nothing about her amputation.

Leather girl was probably the closest but didn't say amputation.

Guest #4 had a stroke.

Reiki guy said lungs. Guest 3 says miss.

Leather girl said stroke. And according to the guy was correct.

Blond Girl said fracture, which is somewhat correct but not what she was supposed to get.

Guest #5, dirtbike rider. 17 bone fractures.

Reiki guy:

Pain in knee, pain in elbow, said fracture, damage to ribs, body has battering. Guy got side right. Left foot thing. Guy said it happened on stage, so I think there might have been a visible cue.

Blond girl was apparently ok as well.

Richard the skeptic pointed out the odds of finding a hit. And that stroke guy might have been standing differently to the other people. Psychic judge made up a bunch of crap about it. Leather girl did make quite a few guesses, probably not as many as the blond girl or reiki guy, but it was not as the judge described (one hit after another).

I'm not recording the show so I know that I have missed some things, and as you can see I'm writing during a commercial here.

I think that there has been some editing afoot, they didn't show as many misses, and I think that they might not have shown all the people (I don't remember seeing blond girl with the first guy for example) making their guesses.

Now they are finding whether they can match luggage to the person.

I don't remember seeing second guy in the last segment though. I think I've conflated him and reiki guy.

Reiki guy failed with the luggage challenge. Picked a woman.
Blond girl managed to pick the guy, but thought she would take another look and failed (woman again).
Second guy was wrong as well, at least he chose a guy though (which the owner of the luggage was).
Leather girl picked a girl but it was the man behind her.

This segment was 0/4.

All the psychics made up crap to explain away this.

Psychic judge was still trying to claim that they are psychic because (at least the girls) were so close to the person in question.

It still means nothing though. But we did hear the old spiel about "can you measure love, power etc?"

No, because they are subjective.

The next is a "celebrity psychic reading".

Celeb #1 Guy Leech.

Leather girl, who apparently is called "Charmaine"

2 Kids. "Hit"
"Barry". "Hit"
What sport. Miss
Daughter, dark hair, dancer, focus of family. "Hit"

She had two guesses on his "celebrityness". She said TV first, but then changed to sport.

Celeb #2 Paul O'Brien.

Second guy.

Bikes. "Hit". But I don't know if it was actully a hit for "excercise". He did say Bike riding though.
Fireplace. Miss
Athsma/bronchitis."Hit"
Accounting and Finances etc. "Hit" The guy had something to do with a mortgage.

Based on this rough list we see that these people are 3/4. I want to know how many misses were there and whether they are the only "hits" that they got.

We are at a commercial break, so let's see how many hits the other two get.

Celeb #3 Toni Pearen

Reiki guy was up.

bubbly vivacious outgoing. "Hit"
Dog. Miss
Has no kids but are around other kids. "Hit"
Hard to get close, but they are very important. "Hit"
Volunteer work. Miss
Needed time to herself. "Hit"

Celeb #4 Justin Melvey

Blond girl was up.

Strong built."Hit"
Male. "Hit"
Carrie, Kenny, championship ring. "Hit"
Brothers. "Hit"
Ice cream lover. "Hit"

Richard. Pointed out generalisations. There were plenty of them. Had reiki guy pointed out that Toni was a girl he would have been 5/7 instead of 4/6. Blond girl was 4/4.

I do like how they redefined the word "fact".

If you don't like my list, I'm giving "hits" based on what the celebrities thought. Again, a subjective thing. Blond girl said something along the lines of "I'm getting a Carrie... Kenny... something about championships" (I think it was Kenny. Could have been Kelly.). From the celeb I think that what he gave a hit was technically a miss, because it was not him but someone else.

What I would like to know is if they are "psychics" then why don't they know if they are going to win?

Reiki guy, who I've found out is called Jason, was kicked off.

But I think that even though he lost he will be raking in the dough.

They are now telling us who to vote for to win. Funny that they aren't doing a "live" show.

But in their last show, they are going to try and find the body of Peter Falconio.

I guess they would have used the Beaumont Children case but they couldn't because a psychic who was well known at the time tried to find them and was wrong.

Reality TV

Channel 10 recently showed a commercial for their latest reality TV show, Meerkat Manor.

Of course, it isn't a reality TV show, but that is how Channel 10 makes it out to be.

Or at least they did when Big Brother was on. Now it's something like Neighbours. Either way it makes a show that seems interesting end up in the "crap TV show" section of my brain.

To watch that show I would need to be in a seat like the one in A Clockwork Orange