Posts by Joe Wylie

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  • Hard News: Stop the Enabling,

    Show that you are a man and not a child and admit you are wrong.

    It's that or a 'light' punch to the eye, eh?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Are We There Yet?,

    And I'd also like to give a, uh 'big shout out' (as I believe teh kidz say) to Gio's swan song a page or two ago.

    Yes indeed.

    One small thing - I'm really not comfortable with the term 'lapsed catholic', in the way it's been casually used here. While there are no doubt those who've 'drifted away' from the church, and may drift back for whatever reasons, if you've been captured by the church in infancy, breaking away in early adolescence can take a lot of courage.

    When you've taken all that stuff about hell and purgatory as seriously as it's been presented, defying the catholic god to strike you dead - as you've been assured by a succession of authority figures will surely happen if you take a hammer to your wretched rosary - takes a certain amount of bottle. While it wasn't quite that traumatic for me, I know it's happened. No more fretting about calling for the priest on your deathbed, no playing the get-out-of-hell-free perfect act of contrition card.

    When you've worked your way through that stuff, 'civilised' debate with a committed adherent to papal authority's all a bit abstract. If I feel the need to engage with a really interesting catholic mind I'll take Flannery O'Connor.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Are We There Yet?,

    But I also appreciate being able to debate/converse/discuss in a civilised manner with people who disagree with my position.

    Sure, Mrs. Skin, but as they say, there's a fine line between charm and smarm. While I appreciate that you may benefit from the intellectual exercise, I find it rather annoying to be expected to engage seriously with someone who obfuscates about their real convictions.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: The Super 135,

    What's wrong with "steamers" ? It's the perfect description for a pile of dung!

    You could go one step further and call them "stanleys", as in stanley steamer, à la Roy & H.G. As used, for example, in H. G. Nelson's sign-off when calling the state of origin:

    "So it's good night from us from the island in the sewer which is rugby league, which every year promises the youth of Australia so much, and ends up delivering a uteload of stanleys."

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Are We There Yet?,

    Hot dang, Deborah, you write like the enlightenment personified.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Stop the Enabling,

    Is that a polite invite to join the United Front Against Smelly Old Misanthropes, then?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Stop the Enabling,

    There's more than enough to find disagreeable without resorting to spelling or grammar.t

    Y'know sacha, if it weren't for that Fine Mind of yours, I might never have noticed.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Stop the Enabling,

    Y'know Ian, I don't recall any political party mobile billboards during the last election - but then I wasn't paying a lot of attention. If there were, thanks to Chuckie's revelation one can fairly bet that they were towed by closet homosexuals who'd undergo almost any humiliation to avoid being outed.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Stop the Enabling,

    . . . they threaten to OUT them for not towing the party line.

    Eggcorn of the week.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Are We There Yet?,

    http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6233&var_recherche=sexual+abuse
    http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6165&var_recherche=sexual+abuse
    http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5967&var_recherche=sexual+abuse

    Interesting book reviews Tess, seeing as they're from a world that I'm not too familiar with. Coughlin's a clever writer, but again, primarily an apologist for the recent papacy. It's hard not to see his repeated blaming of institutional abuse on already disgraced bishops as a rather calculated action in damage control, while the Vatican hierarchy is largely treated as being beyond criticism.

    As for John Paul II's naivety/innocence in refusing to comprehend the scale and seriousness of the abuse taking place in the church, something's seriously wrong with an organisation that elects someone so spectacularly incompetent to its leadership. If he were the CEO of a multinational that had been found to be systematically abusing children in the course of its operations one could hardly raise the defence of naivety.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

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