Hypocricy

A quick thought on the #MTRsues case.

I was reading an article in The Age which states that Melinda Tankard Reist has threatened a libel lawsuit against a blogger, and one section of the article jumped out at me as being quite odd and, quite frankly, wrong.  Seeing as my comment was a bit more than I could fit on twitter (thought I can fit it on facebook), I’ve decided to write this very short blog article to put up my thoughts.

“While Tankard Reist has not gone so far as to issue court proceedings yet, she complains social media has intensified the level of vituperation against outspoken figures such as herself.

”Things have gone too far, people think they can just trash you,” she said yesterday. ”Why does being a blogger exempt you from the laws of defamation?”” Continue reading →

Australian Vaccination Network at Woodford Folk Festival. #StopAVN

I’ve spoken about the Australian Vaccination Network before, but those have generally only been mentions and references, I’ve never really gone in to who and what they are.

EDIT: BREAKING NEWS! It appears StopAVN have done something fantastic and unexpected at Woodford Folk Festival!  Please scroll down to the next bolded “EDIT:” and ensure even if you don’t read most of this, you at least read that!!! 😀

Who are the Australian Vaccination Network?
The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), despite all claims to the contrary, are an anti-vaccination group.  They are headed up by Meryl Dorey and claim they’re not, they claim they just support informed choice and provide a counter to the governments provides.  However, the information the AVN provide is wrong on almost all counts which means it’s not really an informed choice they’re providing but a misinformed one, and if the governments provides is pro-vaccine, then any stance counter to that surely must be anti?

Their preferred sources of information are not scientific studies, but rather conspiracy theorist sites such as whale.to (a site that collects any and all articles and claims no matter how crazy and unsubstantiated they are), conspiracy theorists such as David Icke (who promotes world leaders and the royal family being lizard people), and people with revoked medical licenses such as the disgraced Andrew Wakefield.

They’ve had their charity license revoked.  In the last two years, only two issues of their 6/year magazine “Living Wisdom” has been released (and despite being so far behind in issues owed, they’re still actively pushing subscriptions).  They regularly cry oppression, censorship and demand free speech, despite blocking/banning anyone who dares counter their supposed-not president Meryl Dorey with information that is nothing more than factual. They have also been caught filing numerous false DMCA requests to hide public and factual information they don’t like.  The Australian Vaccination Network about as hypocritical as one can get. Continue reading →

AVN talk at the State Library of WA is going ahead as we speak, and that’s good.

I should have spoken up earlier.  It’s currently 6pm in Western Australia, Meryl Dorey is setting up for her talk at the State Library of WA.  As a believer in science and reality based medicine, I am disappointed this is going ahead.  I am also glad.

When Meryl first announced her talk in Perth at the Uniting Church in The City, many people from the StopAVN group contacted them to let them know the reality behind the Australian Vaccination Network, what they really stood for and would really be talking about.  UCiTC were shocked, and decided in the end to cancel the booking.

The Australian Vaccination Network then looked around and lined up a new venue, the State Library of Western Australia.  They told Meryl they often have controversial groups talk, so would not cancel.  True to their word, once contacted by StopAVN members they responded in a similar way and allowed the talk to continue.  Continue reading →

New website launched to counter AVN.

Australia’s Anti Vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network are doing a seminar tomorrow in Perth.  They like to claim they give parents both sides of the vaccination “debate” to “let them decide”, a statement I covered in yesterday’s post.  However, I am yet to see them give any positive information on vaccines.  As a matter of fact, the only information I have seen from them on vaccines has been completely wrong.  This is quite disturbing for a group who claims to be the “vaccination watchdog”, and run by someone who claims to be “the leading expert in Australia on vaccines”.

Also as I said yesterday, you cannot give information and misinformation on equal platters and ask people to decide for themselves.  That’s just unproductive and dangerous as it gives people the false impression that the misinformation is justified and supported.  So, to counter the misinformation and blatant lies by the AVN in tomorrow’s seminar, a website has been launched specifically to correct the AVN’s incorrect claims. Continue reading →

Creationism to be taught in Queensland classrooms.

The thin edge of the wedge (the name of the strategy being actively used by the anti-reality, anti-science, and pro-creationism thinkignorancetank The Discovery Institute) has left its mark in the Queensland department of education.  Creationism has wormed its way in to Queensland classrooms.

On a positive note, the mythology of creationism hasn’t found its way in to science classes as it has in numerous states in America, but the fact it found its way in at all is still bad.  In Queensland it will be taught in History class under the subject of “controversial issues”. Continue reading →

Catchup #2: Catholic Church supports Pedophilia.

The catholic church is reeling at the moment from a disaster of their own making.  For centuries now it has been well known that the catholic church has pedophiles in its ranks.  It has been well known that they often just move priests around rather than booting them out.  This is all starting to catch up with them now as people are coming out left right and centre all around the world telling their stories.

The catholic church are pulling out any and all stocks to try and quieten this down.  Blaming anyone and everyone they can from atheists to secularism, technology, homosexuals, and even the jews.  They’re behaving like a little child “It wasn’t me, it was dolly”.  They’re pleading for people to not be so upset, to give them a break, let them handle it internally.  They’re calling these vile rumours.  They’re not. Continue reading →

Free Tibet? Take a closer look first.

Dalai LamaLike most people, if someone was to ask me about Tibet and the events that took place there I would have spoken of beautiful monasteries, gentle people who only wanted to spread peace, who were invaded and brutally slaughtered by the Chinese in the mid 1900’s.  This is the picture we are most often subjected to, so it may be surprising to many to hear that this is picture is a deceptive one, and that the “Free Tibet” people you may often run across on the city streets should be taken with a grain of salt.

This post is inspired by an article I read at smuh this morning.  I tweeted my disgruntledness (if that is even a word?), which turned in to a conversation with @Flawedprefect who was confused as to my disapproval. Continue reading →

On trolling, hypocrisy and vandalism.

Thank-youIKEA1024Earlier this evening I was introduced to the Jesus: All About Life Facebook page.  A quick look through the page showed it was a legitimate page made by the people behind the campaign, but 16 hours earlier Atheists and non-christians had also discovered it and were trolling quite badly.

Earlier today while browsing through my usual sites I came across a post at Pharyngula about someone who was arrested for defacing a poster for an alpha.org advertising campaign.

I decided to also check out jesusallaboutlife.com – a parody site set up when it was discovered the JAAL people only registered the .com.au domain, not the .com one, and saw on the front page this particular article.

Seriously guys, trolling and vandalism is NEVER acceptable. Continue reading →

A friendly reminder to my fellow Atheists.

Is your housemate an Atheist?A conglomeration of christian sects in Australia has recently gotten together to perform a big non-demoninational advertising push in this country which kicks off next week (13th of September 2009).  The slogan behind the campaign is “Jesus: All About Life” and is about pushing christianity as a whole rather than a specific sect of it.

There’s been a few stories about this in the Sydney Morning Herald, but today they decided to open up the comments for feedback.  From the outset the comments lambasted christians, threw up claims of false advertising, told them to educate themselves, talk about discrimination against race, sex and sexuality.

I do not approve. Continue reading →

Lesson #5489 in getting media sympathy: violate human rights worse than your neighbor.


What the f*%k is up with the media in the last 12 months? Anywhere there’s a conflict happening, the reporting is as arse-backwards as it could possibly be, if not more so. Case in point, the current fighting happening in Sri Lanka between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers. I am yet to see a news story that doesn’t demonify SL while glossing over the TT. Sri Lanka attacked a hospital, they injured and killed women and children.

I’m sorry, but the only reason not only the women and children were attacked as well as the hospital in the first place was because the Tigers set up their base of operations INSIDE the hospital, using the women, children, sick and injured as human f*%king shields! That’s a horrendous act. It’s low. It’s despicable. It’s cowardly. It’s pathetic. It’s a MUCH worse violation of human rights than what Sri Lanka are doing, yet it’s only Sri Lanka getting demonified for it! WHAT THE F*%K IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??? Continue reading →