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| Gina Rinehart - Princess of Woop Woop in Oz |
Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world (yes, richer even than Christy Walton) must think she’s some kind of Dagny Taggart OR SOMETHING. Rinehart penned an offensive editorial column in a mining industry magazine that’s being widely condemned in Australia. Considering that she owns much of the media there, and undoubtedly many a politician, too, that seems significant.
Rinehart’s fortune is estimated to be in the range of $30 billion and apparently the mining heiress thinks those drunken shrimp-on-the-barbie poors are just jealous of people like her and her rich friends. During a month when Rinehart is actively engaged in petitioning the government to lower the minimum wage and slash taxes on the wealthy, her timing couldn’t be worse.
Setting aside the fact that it’s patently ridiculous that a single family could be allowed to make that kind of money by mining a natural (and therefore national) resource like iron ore out of the ground, Rinehart inherited her fucking money in the first place (Just like Francisco d’Anconia inherited his copper mines in Atlas Shrugged, eh? And remind me again how Dagny Taggart came to be running Taggart Transcontinental? Ah, yes, through an accident of birth!) Via Raw Story:
“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others”
Rinehart blamed what she described as “socialist”, anti-business policies for the plight of Australia’s poor, urging the government to lower the minimum wage, as well as taxes, unless it wanted to end up like Greece.
Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world (yes, richer even than Christy Walton) must think she’s some kind of Dagny Taggart OR SOMETHING. Rinehart penned an offensive editorial column in a mining industry magazine that’s being widely condemned in Australia. Considering that she owns much of the media there, and undoubtedly many a politician, too, that seems significant.
Rinehart’s fortune is estimated to be in the range of $30 billion and apparently the mining heiress thinks those drunken shrimp-on-the-barbie poors are just jealous of people like her and her rich friends. During a month when Rinehart is actively engaged in petitioning the government to lower the minimum wage and slash taxes on the wealthy, her timing couldn’t be worse.
Setting aside the fact that it’s patently ridiculous that a single family could be allowed to make that kind of money by mining a natural (and therefore national) resource like iron ore out of the ground, Rinehart inherited her fucking money in the first place (Just like Francisco d’Anconia inherited his copper mines in Atlas Shrugged, eh? And remind me again how Dagny Taggart came to be running Taggart Transcontinental? Ah, yes, through an accident of birth!) Via Raw Story:
“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others”
Rinehart blamed what she described as “socialist”, anti-business policies for the plight of Australia’s poor, urging the government to lower the minimum wage, as well as taxes, unless it wanted to end up like Greece.
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| Where the bloody hell is Toowoomba? |
We've just celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday. A day when we read from John 10 where Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” (John 10:11).Toowoomba's sacked bishop is not alone in calling for debate on women
This week in Australia we are left puzzling over the fate of a man who has been consistently called “a great pastor” by his priests and people. I speak of Bishop (now retired) Bill Morris.
The details of Rome’s reasons for wanting his dismissal are not known. What is known is that other bishops and cardinals who protected paedophiles were not asked to resign/retire, while Bishop Morris was. Such skewed decision-making is perplexing at best and in many eyes scandalous.
At the heart of Bishop Morris’ concern lay the Eucharist and the long Catholic value of being a Eucharistic community nourished by the Word and the Table. Across Australia, such Eucharistic nourishment is becoming less and less possible.
…Parishes are joining up, placing impossible demands on a single priest to be the sole pastor for one conglomerate parish where there were once two or three or four. Dioceses are importing pastors from India, Vietnam, Africa, Poland and unfortunately many of these men lack the cultural awareness to genuinely pastor Australian Parishes. In one Parish, when the new priest arrived, the pastoral council was immediately dismissed.
Pope Benedict's decision this month to dismiss William "Bill" Martin Morris, bishop of the Australian diocese of Toowoomba, 190,000 square miles of bush inland from Brisbane, was a really, really sad one. Morris was accused of calling for an open debate on the ordination of women and the extension of married clergy to the whole church. In his Advent pastoral letter in 2006 he had indeed called for such debates and added that there should be similar discussion about Catholics accepting Anglican and Lutheran orders and those of the Uniting Church, a grouping of Australian Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists.We all know Bishop Morris meant well but “actum de vagina pars illa arcte vetabat” - discussion about that (thing) is strictly forbidden.
It is an open secret that there is a crescendo of debate about such questions in the Catholic world. The precedents for such action are well known. There are thousands of married priests in Catholicism's eastern rites, all living – doubtless happily – with their spouses in complete harmony with Rome. Such has been the case for perhaps two millennia. And as far as female clergy are concerned, the consecration of various women to holy orders during the Stalinist dictatorship under which Czechoslovakia lived following the second world war, while never officially publicised, has never been declared invalid by the Vatican. And, leaving Czechoslovakians aside for a moment, wasn't Mary Magdalene some sort of heroine in the church's earliest days?
The St. Mary’s Treaty was signed during a well-attended mass with the congregation of St. Mary’s and members of the local Aboriginal community witnessing it. The treaty was celebrated in coroborree in accordance with Aboriginal customary law and written on paper in accordance with non-Aboriginal law. It is real.”
“The Archbishop has appointed Ian Callinan to mediate between himself and St. Mary’s. When Ian Callinan was a high court judge he had to be forced off the Hindmarsh Island case because of his bias against Aboriginal claims of rights and interests. The Archbishop’s choice of mediator is an example of the contempt of Aboriginal law, culture and rights that he appears to hold. His blanket refusal to discuss the treaty is another.”
“The Oodgeroo Treaty Circles are asking the Archbishop and the Brisbane Archdiocese to confirm and support the St. Mary’s treaty which involves innovative Aboriginal welfare and social justice programs such as dry camps, a cultural heritage education program and the facilitation of Aboriginal men’s, women’s and elders business. The treaty process provides non-Aboriginal Australians a direct relationship with Aboriginal culture and programs. This path of healing is being obstructed by the Archbishop’s refusal to even acknowledge Aboriginal rights and interests, let alone work pro-actively with them.”
