Caution about intolerance

Although it looks as though Abbott will pressure the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate to backdown on not allowing  women wearing Islamic religious dress to sit in the Gallery opf the Parliament; It remains to be seen if that will actually happen. 

I suspect it will. But we shall see.

The Abbott machine has obviously sussed out very quickly that the community is "not very happy" about the arbitrary erosion of religious freedom

One of the great problems is that the non religious community is pretty unaware of what such things are all about. And often use such issues for expressions of fear, intolerance and....frankly    ignorance.

Most of us, for example, are not aware that there is a variety of religious garb...quite a good article on the ABC News website here.

I also have often made the observation that you don't have to go very far to find that the sort of criticisms that today are offered about Islam, or Judaism, Hare Krishnas...could just as easily be fired at Christians.

The typical characterisation of "cults" for example...that people sell up their lives and give their money to the faith body; make acts of commitment and ultimate obedience....could just as easily be aimed at many Christians.

Indeed I make the observation : would nuns of the most conservative Christian traditions (like the one that Senator Bernardi and Mr Abbott belong to) also be banned because their bodies and faces can't be readily identified.

I know that lots of modern nuns don't wear habits at all. And most people don't understand what they are all about it. Some of it is anachronistic (see below)...but in a pluralistic and democratic society people are allowed to choose to be religiously conservative ...even if you or I would not choose to be so.

A matter of conviction

Today's paper has one cartoon called "The Politician". The interviewer is pushing a microphone in the mouth and asking "Do you have any convictions that we don't know about?"

The Politician answers... 'Not sure which way you mean it. Either way, No!'

It is an interesting joke, I have oft times bemoaned how many politicians seem to be headline driven rather than principle-driven. It leads to poor policy and the sort of tedious politics that we seem to be experiencing at both a national and state level just at the moment.

The curious reporting of the visit to Afghanistan by both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition in the last week is a case in point. Both seem to have handled this poorly.

Julia could have just chosen to note that Abbott was unable to go at the time and that he would have been travelling later. And why did Tony have to be so stupid as to say he wasn't going going to avoid being jetlagged, allowing the PM and others to at least suggest that troops in Afghanistan were less important than the Conservative party conference.

Then this morning he cries "bastardry", but at least he gets his gun-toting picture in the paper (I wonder if and indeed why he might have had training to use such a weapon). He said he wanted to be 'embedded' with the troops.

How crazy is that? Any fool can see that that is essentially a risky proposition. (At Least Prince Harry who presumably is a similar sort of risk is a highly trained combatant), and it's not that Abbott is endangering himself but he is endangering soldiers who are already at high risk.

Both of them should be ashamed of the way they have attempted squeeze the political advantage out of this.

Hats on...pants down

Alleged independent MP Bob Katter may be the real spanner in the works when it come to unravelling this election dilemma.

His bigger than big personality is surrounded by an even bigger hat! To be sure he talks a lot of sense (in my opinion) about the rapine that has taken place of country Australia. This would seem to be the great unifying factor for the gang of three. But this morning on AM we hear a less sensible version of his rantings (here).

He likens himself to Jo Bjelke who he calls 'one of my great heroes'. This should set all sort of alarm bells going.

If that was not enough he also dismisses Ross Garnaut & Nicholas Stern as 'lightweights' on the climate change issue. One supposes that the less you are inclined to agree with them the more lightweight someone becomes.

The Big Question, is whether the other two feel likewise. If they do then it is all over for a little while as they must side with Abbott you would think.

The real worry, which is only just beginning to be canvassed, is what happens if the gang of three go in different directions. So far the simple maths has rather depended on them going as a bloc. If that was so we would go into the tricky 76/74 balance. But if it's actually 75/75 then it seems to me that this is probably unworkable

The real Ms Gillard & the real Mr Abbot

One has to laugh at Abbot';s cheek in standing up saying "Will the real Julia Gillard please stand up?" and then following up with "If you elect Tony Abbott then you will get Tony Abbott!"

Hugh Mackay rightly remarks that 'we haven't seen the real Tony Abbott'

Abbott has been so totally under control...he has curbed his loose lip, but this is not his usual modus operandi. he is usually a loose cannon who doesn't claim to speak the absolute truth on the run....to be fair which of us does?....but this lip-pursing Abbott never seems to me like 'the real Tony Abbott'!