http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog a blog about things Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:09:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This has to be less than ideal as a precedent for civil liberties in schools.  Another sign of a fundamental shift in our attitude to the presumption of innocence in the 21st Century, perhaps? http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/04/03/another-brick-in-the-wall/ The Age reports on the pressing issue of the growth of independent schools teaching from a faith-based curriculum in Australia.  Presenting religious indoctrination in the Howard era clothing of "choice", some such schools are teaching creationism in science classes and directly counteracting government efforts to provide sex education to students. For ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/02/25/unscientific-superstition-quietly-gaining-influence-in-australian-schools/ In a recent interview, everyone's favourite extreme right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia remarked that he found it 'absurd' to think that authorities couldn't torture an individual who had information about an imminent terrorist attack (another take).  Picking up on the widespread belief that terrorists will hand themselves ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/02/13/us-supreme-court-judge-absurd-not-to-punch-suspects-in-the-face-stick-things-under-fingernails/ The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic News tell us that judges and other members of the legal community in New South Wales recently participated in 'Red Mass', a European tradition in which members of the legal profession seek divine guidance for the courts. The image of judges - wearing the robes ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/01/30/red-mass-the-court-goes-to-church/ This is an extraordinary decision by the Industrial Relations Commission.  Telstra has had its right to sack an employee upheld, where the basis of the sacking was that she had sex with another employee (or employees, it seems) outside of work hours and then refused to tell her benevolent employer ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/01/25/refuse-to-tell-your-employer-about-your-sex-life-lose-your-job/ I just became aware of this piece of legislation, recently introduced into the South Australian Parliament: the Serious Crime (Control) Bill 2007 (SA). You can see the bill here in Rich Text Format or here in PDF. This legislation is ostensibly aimed at bikie gangs, but it goes a lot ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/01/24/serious-crime-control-bill-2007-sa-a-bill-controlling-what-exactly/ In a break with longstanding tradition, the Adelaide City Council has decided to do something innovative and interesting to the visual environment in the city centre by commissioning a (seemingly permanent) high tech light installation for the middle of the CBD. Mercifully the council abandoned an earlier plan to create a ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2008/01/23/adelaide-to-suck-slightly-less/ This is an interesting little example of the current attitude to anonymity in some sections of the community: a type of jacket with a hood and integrated face-mask has apparently become popular amongst "young people" in Britain (more). Admittedly looking quite intimidating (see link), the jacket does not in fact come ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2007/12/14/anonymity-implies-criminal-intent-kkk-sympathies-idiots/ FYI: [W]e have no current plans to accumulate massive armaments on our neighbours' borders. - regards, Russian Foreign Ministry. Thanks for letting us know.  Is it perchance time to stop devoting 100% of our resources to chasing criminally insane Arabic men around in the deserts of the world and start paying attention to ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2007/12/13/least-reassuring-statement-ever/ The always interesting Possum Comitatus has some analysis of voting trends and social factors at the last federal election. Tucked away in there are some very interesting graphs about religion and its correlation to several other variables (about half way down, look for "Update 2"). In particular, two relationships stand ... http://www.intelligentdesign.com.au/blog/2007/12/12/religion-is-in-the-inverse-of/