Super League club Catalans left ‘reeling’ by reaction to Israel Folau signing

Homosexuals have benefited greatly from tolerance.  How contemptible of them to refuse tolerance to devout Christians

The angry backlash to Israel Folau’s Super League lifeline has forced his new club Catalans to pull out of their first public move with him.

Catalans Dragons have reportedly changed their mind about unveiling new signing Israel Folau in front of the world’s media because of the severe backlash that has erupted over the cross-code star’s move to the Super League.

Rugby Australia (RA) sacked Folau for anti-gay social media posts, including one in which he said “hell awaits” homosexuals, and the two parties went to war before legal proceedings ended with them settling for a confidential amount late last year.

Folau left with some of the millions he was seeking after filing a lawsuit against RA for unlawful termination but his rugby career Down Under was over. However, French club Catalans offered him a lifeline and announced they’d lured him back to league — the game he first turned professional in.

But Folau’s arrival was met with outrage in the footy world, which is reportedly part of the reason why Catalans have opted against a public unveiling of their prize recruit, according to ITV’s Steve Scott.

Catalans have reportedly been taken aback by the negative reaction to Folau’s latest move and imposed a media lockout on queries involving the 30-year-old.

Dragons President Bernard Guasch said he did not support Folau’s anti-gay stance or previous comments but offered him an olive branch because he had already served his punishment by being banished from the 15-a-side game in Australia.

“When we learned that Folau was on the market and that he was finished with the legal proceedings in Australia and he made his apologies to the rugby union authorities, I decided that we were going to recruit a rugby player,” Guasch said.

“I do not want to get into any controversy at all. I think the player has already paid for his comments since he was fired from the Waratahs and he was not able to play in the World Cup.”

Many have come out and slammed the Dragons’ decision to give Folau a contract. The executive chairman of Europe’s Super League said in a statement the majority of “informed voices connected to our game … share my disappointment that one of our clubs has chosen to sign him”.

“There is a strong feeling that the decision to sign him lets down many people connected to our sport,” Robert Elstone said. “I made Catalans Dragons aware of those views.”

Wakefield Trinity chief executive Michael Carter argued Folau’s registration “should have been refused” and said “his views are abhorrent in the modern world”.

Wakefield player Keegan Hirst, the first British rugby league player to come out as gay, said on Twitter he was “shocked and disappointed” by Folau’s arrival in Super League.

“Our great game is tasked with fighting against homophobia and standing up for the values it puts such high stock in,” he tweeted. “It shows none of the bravery, camaraderie or integrity RFL expects from its players, staff and fans.”

English club Wigan Warriors also jumped on social media to take aim at Folau. “Wigan Warriors can confirm that their round six game against Catalans Dragons on Sunday 22nd March will now be Pride Day, as the Warriors look support the LGBTQ+ community,” the club wrote on Twitter.

League Weekly reports Folau’s signing has led to concerns sponsors could be scared away not just from Catalans but from the Super League entirely.

Carter told the publication: “So many people are vehemently against it and, for a club like ours, this could have major financial repercussions throughout our organisation.”

SOURCE  






Big business ‘killing people’: New Greens leader Adam Bandt’s slams action on climate change

Bandt is a former Trotskyite. He joined the Greens out of convenience.  Trotskyites think even Communists are too Right-wing

Hours after being elected unopposed, the new leader of the Australian Greens has accused big business of “killing people and endangering people’s safety” and claimed Scott Morrison’s action on climate change will lead to “three times as many deaths” as the 2019-20 bushfire crisis in which 33 people lost their lives.

Declaring he wanted to “turf this government out”, Adam Bandt said Australia under the Prime Minister’s leadership was on track to warm by three degrees and the biggest barrier to climate action was coal.

“Big business that makes its money by killing people and endangering people’s safety should be worried. Anyone who makes a profit by putting people’s lives at risk should be worried because their days are gone,” Mr Bandt said in his first press conference as leader.

“Our message is also there is a role in a manufacturing renaissance in this country for businesses to sell the rest of the world things that are powered by the sun and the wind.

Business model ‘threatens human life’

“If you’re a coal company or a gas company or an oil company then our message to you is very simple – your business model is unsustainable. Your business model is predicated on threatening human life and they have to go. They have to go in a way that looks after workers and that looks after communities but they have to go.”

Mr Bandt, who said he was not unhappy with the description of himself as a “Greens social democrat”, said the country needed a “carbon price plus” to reduce emissions and tackle global warming.

“Scott Morrison has got us on track for three degrees of global warming and that is a catastrophe and you can’t have it both ways, you can’t say you accept the science of climate change but then refuse to accept what the science is that you need to do,” he said.

“These catastrophic bushfires have happened at one degree, Scott Morrison’s plan is for at least three times as much pain, three times as much suffering and three times as many deaths at least because that is what is in store for us if we keep on going the way the government has us going.

“If the government says ‘oh look, we don’t want a price on carbon but we’re prepared to look at a staged, orderly exit of coal-fired power stations’, then of course we’ll look at that but in fact they’re doing the opposite.

They’re saying how can we use public money to prop up coal-fired power stations? They’re doing a feasibility study about a new coal-fired power station.”

The Greens have a plan to phase out thermal coal exports and domestic use by 2030.

Mr Bandt was elected Greens leader at a partyroom meeting on Tuesday unopposed alongside co-deputy leader and Queensland senator Larissa Waters, who will also be Senate leader.

Mr Bandt will be the first Greens leader in the party’s history not to sit in the upper house. He will succeed retiring Victorian senator Richard Di Natale.

SOURCE  






Alan Jones accuses ABC's Q&A program of being 'out of touch' and 'biased' after conservative senator  was heckled during a climate change debate

Molan is a retired general.  He is not an expert on science.  Putting him up against a top Warmist was bound to make him look bad

Broadcaster Alan Jones has labelled Q&A 'out of touch' and 'clearly biased' after a fiery episode discussing climate change and the bushfire crisis on Monday night.

Liberal senator Jim Molan was laughed at and heckled by the show's audience as he admitted he was not convinced humans were causing climate change.

Q&A host Hamish Macdonald also pressed Mr Molan for evidence changes in the climate was not human-induced, to which the latter responded 'I'm not relying on evidence.'

But Jones hit out at Macdonald's line of questioning in his debut show, saying the senator was a politician and should not be expected to have detailed evidence.

'Jim Molan is not a climate scientist so why would he be expected to have detailed scientific knowledge of the "evidence" relied on by climate scientists who dispute anthropogenic climate change?' Jones wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

Molan's response that he was not relying on evidence had prompted laughter and looks of disbelief from the studio audience.

Jones added Macdonald had not lived up to the 'even-handed approach' Q&A executive producer Erin Vincent had paid tribute to in the days before the episode aired.

'Why conservatives agree to appear on this clearly biased program I have no idea,' Jones wrote. 'Last night guest senator Jim Molan was set up as the clay pigeon for the studio audience and panel to target.'

Macdonald had to twice step in to quieten the audience so Mr Molan, a 69-year-old former general, could be heard.

Following the exchanges of the night before, Jones on Tuesday morning said it was time for the ABC to stop pretending it was impartial and admit to being biased.

'Q&A and its unrepresentative studio audiences remain profoundly out of touch with mainstream Australia,' the 2GB host wrote as he concluded his post.

Jones' comments followed a testing first episode of the year for the new host, which was filmed in Queanbeyan.

In a section on climate change, American panellist Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, said: 'Climate change is real and human caused.' 'It's already leading to disastrous impacts here in Australia and around the rest of the world. And it will get much worse if we don't act.'

Hamish MacDonald then asked Senator Molan if he agreed with the scientists.

The senator replied: 'I accept the climate is changing. It has changed and it will change… and what it's producing is hotter and drier weather and a hotter and drier country.'

Macdonald pressed him, saying: 'What's causing that?'

Senator Molan continued: 'As to whether it is human-induced climate change is...'

At that point he was cut off by frustrated jeers and boos from the crowd.

Mr Molan hushed to crowd by saying: 'Thank you, thank you' before Macdonald helped him by shushing the audience.

He went on to say he respected 'scientific opinion' but 'every day across my desk comes enough information for me to say that there are other opinions.'

Macdonald asked him to outline exactly what opinions he was referring to but Mr Molan repeatedly dodged the question.

Macdonald pressed him again, saying: 'You haven't answered the question. You said you get information across your desk every day which leads you to doubt or be open-minded about the science.'

Mr Molan replied: 'I am open minded' before Macdonald said: 'What is that information?'

'It's a range of information which goes,' Mr Molan said before he was cut off by heckling.

Macdonald tried to tame the crowd, saying: 'Sorry. Could we just respectfully listen to this question.

He then asked the senator once more to explain his position: 'What is the evidence that you are relying on?'

Mr Molan replied: 'I'm not relying on evidence, Hamish,' prompting laughter from the crowd.

As the crowd laughed, Dr Mann said: 'You said it. You said it.'

Dr Mann then put on an Australian accent and said: 'Come on now, mate.'

Prompting a huge laugh from the audience, he added: 'You should keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out.'

Later, the scientist said: 'When it comes to human caused climate change, it is literally the consensus of the world's scientists that it's human caused... natural factors would be pushing us in the opposite direction.'

It is literally the consensus of the world's scientists that climate change is human caused

Molan was mocked online for being unable to explain why he doubted climate change was human caused.

Even Tasmania senator Jacqui Lambie piled in, writing: 'Oh dear @JimMolan it's gone from a car crash to a train wreck #qanda #ClimateEmergency.'

SOURCE  







Andrew Bolt returns to the fake history issue

Bruce Pascoe is just a fantasist

HOW can we trust Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, when he sacks an adviser who's told him the truth? Incredibly, Wyatt has sacked whistleblower Josephine Cashman, who'd told him "Aboriginal historian" Bruce Pascoe was not actually Aboriginal, which actually seems obvious.

Pascoe is the author of the bestseller Dark Emu, which already makes him hard to believe, given Pascoe cites false sources to claim Aborigines were actually farmers, living in towns of 1000 people.

True, some people want to believe this so badly that Pascoe won the Indigenous Writers Prize at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the ABC will give him a two-part series this year.

But surely harder to swallow is Pascoe's claim to be Aboriginal, descended from the Yuin from NSW, Victoria's Boonwurrung and a tribe from Tasmania. Genealogical records uncovered on dark-emu-exposed.org show all Pascoe's ancestors are of British descent.

Sure, there could be a mistake and I've twice asked Pascoe to
explain it He won't and refuses to release the birth certificates he claims prove he's Aboriginal.

Yet people from the three tribes or areas Pascoe says he's connected to don't think he's Aboriginal either. Michael Mansell, head of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, says "he has no Aboriginal heritage and his claim is absurd". Jason Briggs, chairman of the Boonwurrung Land & Sea Council, says "we do not accept Mr Bruce Pascoe as possessing any Boonwurrung ancestry at all".

And there's Cashman, an Aboriginal businesswoman and inaugural member of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council. Cashman says Pascoe is not Yuin either, although a few welcomed him into the tribe and she demanded the Morrison government investigate his Aboriginality.

That triggered a federal police inquiry which last week cleared Pascoe of any Commonwealth offence, reportedly leading Wyatt to conclude Cashman now had to be sacked from the advisory group advising Wyatt on — ironically —reconciliation. Never mind that the Australian Federal Police admitted it hadn't actually checked if Pascoe was indeed Aboriginal.

On Tuesday, Wyatt told Cashman: "Your membership of the Senior Advisory Group is no longer tenable for the collaborative and consultative approach needed to progress the important codesign process for an Indigenous voice." Seriously? An Aboriginal woman who says a white bloke isn't Aboriginal can't work on an Aboriginal body? Don't we expect more respect for truth from a Minister?

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 30 January, 2020






Thinking for ourselves — precious and threatened

Seventy-five years ago, as the war raged with unrelenting ferocity, Australia’s daily papers reported, typically in a snippet at the bottom of page 4, that on what is now Australia Day a “terrible concentration camp” had been captured at Oswiecim, in southwestern Poland.

According to Reuters, “tens of thousands of people were tortured” in the camp, while “thousands more were shot”.

In reality, 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, of whom 960,000 were Jews. But the scale of the horror only began to become apparent months later, as other camps were liberated and the first newsreels were released, including a film, showing piled corpses and gaunt survivors, projected throughout Australia in May of that year.

Worldwide, the shock was enormous, including to those who had no illusions about the Nazi regime.

“We expected anything from that bunch,” Hannah Arendt, who had narrowly escaped deportation to the death camps, told Gunter Grass in an interview on German television in 1964. “But this was different. It really was as if an abyss had opened.”

Suddenly it became evident “that things which for thousands of years the human imagination had banished to a realm beyond human competence can be manufactured right here on Earth, that Hell and Purgatory, and even a shadow of their perpetual duration, can be established by the most modern methods of destruction”.

“We had the idea that amends could somehow be made for just about everything. But not for this. Something happened there to which we cannot reconcile ourselves. None of us ever can.”

At first, in trying to make sense of the incomprehensible, Arendt thought that perhaps Kant was right; perhaps there lurks, within the human mind, a capacity for “radical evil”, which acts with a diabolic force that can neither be explained nor understood by the conventional “evil motives of self-interest, greed, covetousness, resentment, lust for power, and cowardice”.

But as she reflected on the sheer scale of what had been done, Arendt found Kant’s account unsatisfactory. There were, for sure, plenty of monsters among the murderers; but vicious hatred was far less evident than might have been expected among the tens of thousands of people implicated in the killing machine. “At every level, the Nazis produced more evil, with less malice, than civilisation had previously known.”

That “banality of evil”, she argued, was only possible because so many Germans had suspended their sense of judgment: the capacity, when the accepted norms have evaporated and the guidance of tradition has broken down, to think critically for oneself.

The faculty of judgment “will not find out, once and for all, what ‘the good’ is” but “when the worst have lost their fear and the best have lost their hope, and everybody is swept away unthinkingly by what everybody else does and believes in”, the criterion it imposes — “whether I shall be able to live with myself in peace when the time has come to reflect on my deeds and words” — is all that stands between humanity and catastrophe.

And it was the courage to act on that criterion, and the conviction that their actions, however modest they might be, would form part of “the enduring chronicle of mankind”, that prompted ordinary people, such as Wehrmacht sergeant Anton Schmid, to risk their own lives to save those of others.

A devout Roman Catholic, Schmid hid Jews in his apartment, obtained work permits to save Jews from massacres, transferred Jews to safer locations, and aided the underground. It is estimated that he saved as many as 300 Jews before he was arrested, tortured and executed.

“The moral of such stories,” wrote Arendt, “is simple and within everybody’s grasp: it is that under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not. Humanly speaking, no more is required, and no more can reasonably be asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation.”

Whether, if tested, we would live up to that standard, we cannot know, and hopefully will never need to learn. Nor can we know what new and dreadful evils mankind, in its infinite inventiveness, reserves for the future.

What we do know is that the moral strength to think for ourselves remains as precious and as threatened as ever.

To say that is not to suggest that the dangers we face are in any way comparable to those braved by Schmid and the other “Righteous Among the Nations”. However, it is undeniable that the pressures to bow to mass opinion grow stronger every day, as does the hysteria that assails those who dare question the self-images of the age.

Those pressures do not come from the fear of disappearing into the “Nacht und Nebel” (night and fog) the Nazis promised their opponents. But as Alexis de Tocqueville warned nearly two centuries ago, it is rarely the thug who says “you will think as I do or die” who poses the greatest threat to liberal democracy.

Rather, it is the voice that proclaims: “You are free not to think as I do; but from this day forth you shall be a stranger among us. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they too, be shunned in turn.”

No doubt, our democracy will find a way of coping with those pressures, as it has with so many others. Whatever their defects, Australians retain a down-to-earth practicality that has always inoculated them both to promises of a Second Coming and to claims of an impending apocalypse. And they still have that sardonic sense of humour that has made them notoriously unreceptive to humourless, conceited ratbags and tinhorn demagogues.

But each people must win their liberty every day afresh — a liberty to which nothing is more inimical than the godlike certainty that muzzles the voice of others, stops all discussion and reduces social relationships to an ant heap.

Seventy-five years after its liberation, Auschwitz’s last survivors are passing away; each anniversary, the commemorations become more of a diplomatic formality, in which ritual replaces memory.

Inexorably, the morning hangings, the specially designed benches on which inmates were whipped until every bone was broken, the cages in which prisoners were starved to death, the operating theatres where children were deliberately infected with disease, the gas chambers and crematoriums, are fading into history. For the sake of our common humanity, the lessons must not.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here