Category Archives: Politics

An open letter to Pauline Hanson.

Pauline Hanson was recently voted into the senate and as such she was given the opportunity to make a speech. Details are pauline_hanson_438351804_croppedhere Pauline Hanson says Australia is in danger of being ‘swamped by Muslims’ in Senate speech

Well Pauline, here is a rebuttal to some of the xenophobic diatribe you’ve been spilling out since you changed your tune from Asians to Muslims.

Dear Pauline,

Refugees do not receive more Centrelink payments than Australian citizens;

Response to Outlandish Claims About Benefits to Refugees: Update

“Sharia” dominated “No go zones” do not exist in Europe…nor America;

Debunking the Myth of Muslim-Only Zones in Major European Cities

According to Sharia, Australian Muslims are expected and obliged to observe and adhere to Australian law. Judicial sharia law (or fiqh) is not implicit to Islam in Australia;

Islamic Australia? What place is there for sacred law in a secular land?

hsp_at_king_kebab_house_campbelltown_1Europe is not being “overrun” by Muslims;

Dispelling The Myth of Eurabia

 

Muslims have repeatedly condemned the actions of ISIS and other extremist appropriations of Islam;

Muslims Around the World Speak Out Against Terrorist Attacks in Paris

Muslims Worldwide Denounce ISIS Terrorism

Paris Terrorist Attacks: Muslims, Iranian And Arab Leaders Condemn ISIS Violence In France

“Not in my name” – Muslims speak out against Paris attacks conducted in the name of Islam

Muslims are speaking out but no one is listening

versus2The Qur’an is no more “violent” than any other religious text (it is a select interpretation of the text, not the text itself, which is exploited by radical elements);

Which is more violent, the Bible or the Quran?

There is no singular universally accepted authoritative interpretation of Islam. Like most of the world’s major religions, Islam exists as a conglomerate of disparate sectarian ideologies. Radicalism exists on the periphery of every ideological system and Islam is no different, but to suggest that all Muslims are radical extremists is plainly ridiculous;

Are All Terrorists Muslims? It’s Not Even Close

How many Muslim extremists are there? Just the facts, please.

…and so it continues. The arguments used by One Nation and associated hate groups simply do not hold up to serious scrutiny;

The notion that Mohammad was a “paedophile” overlooks the obvious implications of historical context;

The truth about Muhammad and Aisha

Bible: Child Marriage in Ancient Israelite times – Paedophilia?

Age of Consent in European & American History

Culture of child marriage in medieval Europe

Without reference to historical context and the particular circumstances relating to the age of consent, the foundations of the entire modern and ancient world could be seen to have been founded by a litany of paedophiles and assorted sexual deviants (if we are to judge them by our contemporary standards).

62af25f81c167f8ea25cadb2f7fd6928Child marriages in our modern world are not exclusive to, or inherent to, any specific religious group;

Child brides and the quran – Dispelling the misconceptions on international women’s day

Child Marriage A CFR InfoGuide Presentation

The simple fact is that while child marriage is prevalent among some Muslim majority states, child marriage is not restricted to Islam, and it’s prevalence is influenced more by socio-economic factors and cultural influence than religious affiliation.

…neither is FGM an exclusively Islamic based problem;

Fact-checking Reza Aslan on Bill Maher’s ‘not very sophisticated’ rant on Islam/

FGM is a cultural practice which predates Islam. It’s practice is influenced more by geographical location than religious affiliation. Christian majority nations and areas which follow various animist traditions also have high rates of FGM.

The claims that Halal Certification is a “tax” which funds terrorist islam-halal-logoorganisations is also a misnomer. The ACC and other government agencies have repeatedly stated that there is no link between halal certification in Australia and terrorist groups (either here in Australia or overseas);

No direct link between halal certification and Islamic terrorism, Senate inquiry told

It’s interesting to note however that the current discourse surrounding halal certification in Australia borrows extensively from a similar campaign against kosher certification in the USA which was initiated by the KKK over 20 years ago;

The “Kosher Tax” Hoax: Anti-Semitic Recipe for Hate

The argument against halal certification in Australia is multifaceted, however all the arguments presented against this certification scheme are seemingly unfounded.

Halal Certification has not resulted in any additional cost to the consumer but has lead to reduced consumer prices in Australia and contributed to maintaining manufacturing viability for Australian owned and/or operated businesses;

Food industry bites back at anti-halal groups

Ag minister Barnaby Joyce says food in Australia would cost more without halal certification

Many commentators have suggested that halal slaughter in Australia is particularly cruel. This idea seems to be based on examples from unregulated overseas markets rather than here in Australia. While there are religious exemptions from prior stunning in Australia, the vast majority of these exemptions apply to Kosher slaughter not halal slaughter (the vast majority of halal slaughter in Australia is conducted using the same mushroom bolt stun that is the preferred option for non-halal slaughter also, while all Kosher slaughter in Australia is conducted without any prior stunning whatsoever);

http://www.rspca.org.au/campaigns/un-stunned-slaughter

Halal slaughter in Australia is worth billions of dollars in revenue to the Australian economy, it allows the market to remain viable. The only alternative to halal slaughter in Australia is live export into unregulated markets where animal welfare cannot be guaranteed;

‘A duty to be kind’ in halal slaughter

There is also concern from a small segment of the Australian e52e93e6095ec4e2ee6270d80fbea1acpopulation that the cultural traditions implicit to Australia could be threatened by Muslim immigration. This concern is seemingly based on urban myths suggesting that institutions such as Christmas and Australia Day celebrations could be under threat;

Have Christmas lights been banned in Cardwell, Australia, due to complaints from Muslim residents?

Hoax won’t dim Cardwell’s Christmas lights

Australia Day Name Change Hoax Targets Prime Minister Gillard

I look forward to your rebuttal I can be contacted at noah at youdbetterrunegg.com

 

Budget Emergency!

Australia’s Prime Minister – Tony Abbott says there is a ‘budget emergency’, Lets see if that is true.

“Thanks to Labor’s poor management over five years, There is now a budget emergency” – Tony Abbott

Lets break it down into 2 parts;

Labor’s Poor Management – Labor allowed the Budget to go into deficit in 2008-09 because the global financial crisis was threatening to plunge our economy into recession. Their action stimulated the economy and kept Australia out of recession and supported hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The deficit peaked at $54.5bn. Then, as the private sector started recovering, Labor started reducing the deficit. In their last full year in office, 2012-13, the federal deficit was $18.8bn. This has bounced back up to $29.8bn for 2014-2015.

Those numbers seem too big to comprehend, so lets compare-

  • The Abbott government is spending $12.4bn on fighter jets. – ABC
  • The total cost of sending Australian troops to the most recent Iraq war was about $2.5 billion. The total commitment to operations in Afghanistan was far more expensive, at $9.3 billion. – SMH
  • The 2014 budget allocates $22.8bn on defence.
  • The total budgeted revenue in 2014 is $363.5 billion.

While Australia did suffer it has recovered much better than the majority of other developed nations mostly because people did not stop spending. The new budget proposed by Joe Hockey slashes government spending on health, education and science among other things and increases government spending on thing like defence while increasing taxes, The tax increases and reduced low-income support will lead to less spending- The very thing that helped Australia through the global financial crisis in the first place. Call it poor management if you wish, Seems pretty open to interpretation to me.

There is now a budget emergency– There is 2 ways of looking at this one. If the economy stayed stagnant at current levels into the foreseeable future then yes Australia would plunge into an enormous debt. However the economy is not stagnant and continues to go up and down as it always has. The global financial crisis caused almost all countries to have a budget deficit and they are only just now getting back into having surplus, Australia however since the Abbott government has taken over has increased the deficit and is up to $29.8bn for 2014-2015.

Not to worry, Our treasurer says everything is under control –Hockey tells Kiwis there is no economic crisis in Australia. So there was no budget emergency Mr Hockey?

If you’re now more confused than when you begun reading then my work here is done.