Xavier Campbel

It's just a theory, who cares?

2007-07-28T13:11:00.000+10:00

A friend at church loaned me a great book last week. Percival Davis', 'Of Pandas and People'. Now I'm not one to get too carried away with this whole debate over creationism and evolution, as far as my children go I've always been perfectly happy for them to learn evolution in school, even though I have my doubts about the theory, because I know that in order to succeed in life it is necessary to fit in.

School is about learning information in keeping with the majority viewpoint so that you can network effectively with your peers as an adult. If the great majority of educated people believed in creationism then I would be mortally disappointed to think my children were being taught a useless bundle of evolutionary information at school.

They can learn the information and facts at school but obviously they learn the truth at church.

The Bible is quite clear about how creation went along and I think that all these Americans carrying on about it being taught properly in schools are just lacking faith. The truth is obvious to most of us, the majority of Americans already believe in it and I think most Australians probably do as well. We don't need to have an education department confirm our beliefs because it's patently obvious that we are right.

All I want our schools to do is teach my children how to be successful and provide them with a piece of paper at the end saying how smart they are.

In fact, until I read this interesting book, I didn't even think the argument needed testing. Nonetheless, if you are feeling a little confronted by all the evolution propaganda out there I recommend this book thoroughly. Or, if you haven't made your mind up yet, make sure you read this, and the Bible to get a fair and unbiased foundation in the debate.

Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins

Labor leader's son is also a boofhead.

2007-07-27T23:08:00.000+10:00

The media seems baffled by the resignation of both Premier Bracks and Deputy Premier Thwaites today. Most have tentatively suggested that, in Bracks' case at least it's down to his son being a boofheaded hoon.

Nick does appear to be an, 'absolute idiot', barely literate in fact as the following comments from his Myspace page demonstrate,

"Its was not a pretty site. im hurting.", the young lad managed to bash into his computer keyboard with his forehead.

Working class kids with money, absolutely offensive and grotesque. None of my children have ever had a Myspace profile.

Prior to his embarrassing car crash Nick, or "Bracksy" as he likes to be called, documented his three day drinking binge.

"Jasssssssssssson im p*ssed right now . . .", he explained on day three.

That said, however I don't believe this has anything to do with, 'family'. If I woke up one morning and found myself a member of the ALP I would resign too. Presumably, upon realising he alerted the error to his mate Thwaites who was equally startled to find himself also a member of the ALP and they both resigned forthwith.

We can only hope he can spend a little time helping with his sons obvious reading and writing difficulties. If the Victorian Labor Party actually cared about education then this tragedy may never have happened.

I should be posting something on my own son soon, so keep an eye on this blog.

Update: Bent My Wookie has this to say about Nick Bracks,

"Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' son Nick Bracks... is hot"

Absolute moron, but apparently the girls like him. It doesn't take much to impress the modern gal, just wax your chest (or have a naturally low testosterone count), get a girly haircut and you're set.

Tim Blair knows what he is talking about.

2007-07-27T00:16:00.000+10:00

Tim Blair copy and pasted from a brief article in the Vail Dail y today about a ski resort town in America that voted to impeach George W. Bush. He didn't actually have much to write about this event, I'm convinced that the more successful a blogger the less they actually need to write. Often Blair writes almost nothing!

As I'm quite new to this blogging thing I don't yet have the credibility to write nothing and still attract readers. That said, I read the article as well and think I can elaborate on Blair's post a tad, I hope he doesn't mind.

"Wasn't global warming meant to be the big threat to ski resorts? Turns out a greater danger is hatred of George W. Bush"

I have never heard of Telluride until Blair alerted me to it. In all fairness however I think it's well time that the term, 'ski resort' stopped being applied to any place with snow and a hill. Ski resorts are usually located in exotic locations and have little or no association with loopy councils passing meaningless motions about political issues they obviously lack the conceptual skills to grasp. A ski resort is something you will find in Europe, not amongst the yokels of hillbilly America.

I note, with some pity, that the article didn't bother explaining why the council has decided to vote that Bush be impeached. Blair didn't have the space to explain either in his one sentence post but the assumption is that they are upset with the president's war on terror. Quite possibly, though they may be just annoyed that Bush hasn't invaded more countries.

Janice commented on the article to say,

"Good. When reason doesn't work sometimes pain does."

Which is possibly true.

I have included a photograph of a man who may well be the mayor of Telluride.

You don't need a high IQ to know a good thing when you see it.

2007-07-24T22:22:00.000+10:00

Was reading Matt Price's latest witticism in The Australian this evening. What a mind numbing post. He seems to think that Rudd and the ALP are much the same as Howard and the Liberals, only better.

How is it possible that a grown man can be paid to produce this sort of nonsense? If anybody knows please tell me, I'm quite certain I could be encouraged to write comparable nonsense under paid conditions.

Price wasn't even accurate,

"They've not yet lost an election but "not fair" is exactly how Coalition MPs regard their routine hammering in the polls"

Of course they've lost elections. It has never been pretty when it's happened, but obviously in Price Land the Coalition has been running Australia since federation. A suggestion that even a toddler could refute on the existing evidence of such offensive institutions as Medicare.

Nonetheless I was mildly interested in a comment by reader Jeremy the realist of Perth,

"I find it absolutely disgusting that one of Australia's most successful and historically significant leaders can be talked about with such disrespect by a bunch of halfwits and fools. I'm more then willing to bet that the average swine who harps on about 'little Johnny' and his ill ways has an IQ far below the average Liberal voter. Not a single one of my hard working engineer/lawyer/accountant/investment banker mates would ever vote Labor because we all paid attention during our economics lectures and know that Labors policies are riddled with holes. Howard has been consistent and skillful in his stewardship and anyone who votes out someone with his record of success is braindead"

That indicates a lot of 'braindead' people around the joint, and shows that Medicare has not only been a terrible economic and social policy but also has failed to provide appropriate healthcare. Unfortunately however Jeremy appears to be somewhat, 'braindead' because, sadly many of my friends (not the imaginary ones Jeremy has) are actually real, 'engineer/lawyer/accountant/investment banker mates' and some of them would never profess to possessing a high IQ.

Poor old Jimmy, I won't embarrass his family by releasing his surname, is so well known as an absolute twit that hardly a chance meeting with him proceeds without at least one absolute clanger. A mutual friend used to freeze a bottle of water during the summer so that, during the day the ice would melt and provide nicely chilled drinking water. Anyway, as the day progressed the ice would eventually end up floating like a large block in the water.

Jimmy noticed this one afternoon and asked, 'how the heck did you get that piece of ice in the bottle?'.

Well, we cracked up of course. Jimmy is a very successful barrister.

IQ has nothing to do with anything here Jeremy. Voting Liberal is about having class and commonsense, you don't need a high IQ to know the ALP and the Greens are little more than factory workers in a suit. And let's not forget that some ALP voters have high IQ's too.

Global warming strikes again.

2007-07-17T22:33:00.000+10:00

Ballarat and large parts of central Victoria were carpeted in snow today.

First the drought breaks and now this? It must be hard being a global warming advocate these days with it being so ludicrously cold.

"A FREEZING snap has hit with snow falling, power use surging towards a winter record, and Melbourne shivering through the coldest day in nine years"
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22087365-661,00.html

Bleeding heart topics like global warming, ozone layer depletion and acid rain (in reverse chronological order) are just convenient issues for some people to associate with. Rather than get involved in genuine, serious issues, like drugs, terrorism, child abuse, alcoholism and other scourges of society where the common man can actually have an impact for good.

Instead of actually subscribing to a fight that might be hard or dirty, but actually achieve some genuine good, people can choose to simply subscribe to the global warming 'crisis' and then it's as easy as turning off a few appliances and installing low energy light bulbs.

By a lucky coincidence that also helps with the household finances and is kind of trendy right now too. What a perfect cause for the hip and savvy, all the feel good emotions without the blisters and the heartache.

And what's better about global warming as the cause of choice for so many is that, assuming it is real, it's so big there's nothing serious the average person could do to stop it. So, if it doesn't ever get any better then they can't be blamed.

Even better, if it could get any better for the easy cause subscriber, if the whole thing turns out to nonexistent, and man made global warming doesn't exist, then they can all pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves for preventing it with their hard work and the low energy light bulbs.

Meet the Campbels. Our daughter.

2007-07-15T15:01:00.000+10:00

It isn't easy raising children these days. My eldest daughter is studying her HSC this year, and is doing remarkably well if I do say so myself. I've already promised not to state any of the family names in this blog but all the same she was terribly unsure about me including a photo of her with this post, she agreed in the end as long as I promised not to implicitly identify it as her.

That said, the accompanying photograph may, or may not be of my daughter. And may or may not have been taken during our family trip to Switzerland for last years skiing season.

I sometimes think happy times like those are fleeting. When she was born it seemed like she would be my little girl for ever but now, on the cusp of university and womanhood I have come to cherish the times we remain as a family unit, under one roof.

Luckily we have been spared the problems so many have had to endure with their teenage daughters, but in fairness most of that is down to her good commonsense and Christian values. Of course I like to imagine that the wife and I played no small part in raising her to have the high self esteem and moral values that, the lack of which presumably play a part in teenage pregnancy, drugs and student politics.

As I write this post she is out with her friends from church after a busy morning of fellowship. One of the most uplifting things is to watch your daughter grow into a beautiful woman and we have all been blessed in that respect. Fortunately Miss Campbel has chosen to wait until she finishes university before she enters into a serious relationship with a boy, though I have noticed she spends quite a bit of time with a certain young lad from church.

Totally inappropriate as a potential husband, his father is in the building industry, but the wife says it's healthy for a young woman to experience innocent flirting. If it were up to me I would have a strong word with the youngster, he's not a bad kid, but obviously completely delusional if he thinks he stands a hope with my daughter. Of course, the wife says, she is mature enough to handle him effectively.

She enjoys horse riding, and is still a member of the local pony club, though she doesn't have much time for that these days. A very smart girl, I hope her siblings have half as much academic success. When she finishes university we expect her to find a husband with ease, she is a very attractive young lady after all, and settle down to raise a family.

Just yesterday she put her arms around me and said, "daddy, I'm so happy you are getting into the computer thing finally". "Why's that dear", I asked and she giggled, "so I will be able to email you when I'm in London next year".

Of course, she knows that we aren't all in the family entirely over the moon, so to speak, with her plan to spend a year in Europe on her own. It's hard enough to imagine her leaving home for university, especially since she wants to attend Melbourne Uni. But the wife and I prayed about it and decided that if she really wants to go then we might be able to accommodate her grand plans. She is such a mature young lady, it's heartbreaking yet makes me so proud at the same time to think she is becoming such a responsible and independent adult.

Democracy: too good for some.

2007-07-14T23:41:00.000+10:00

Gerard Baker makes an interesting observation today in the Australian.

"DEMOCRACY, Winston Churchill famously observed, is the worst form of government ever devised - except for all the others. Well, he was right about the first part."

In other words, Democracy, 'is the worst form of government ever devised' end of discussion.It's hard really to disagree with him on that point. Democracy is giving the Republicans a hammering at the moment for their patriotic attempts to win the war on terror. Not long ago, in their first democratic election Palestinians elected Hamas, and the US quickly, and rightly refused to deal with the new government.

Look what else democracy has done for us. Whitlam and free education, Keating and the, 'recession we had to have', and possibly soon Rudd and the resurgence of the unions. Heaven help us, and I'm a Christian so I really mean it when I write that.

Democracy is fine when people vote the right way, but what about when they don't? Yesterday I had a bit of time to watch a group of young people outside a bar in the CBD and the thought suddenly occurred to me, 'my goodness, these people can vote'.

And this is where so many, including Baker get it wrong, it isn't democracy that fails but that anyone can take part in it. Some of you might suggest that this is the whole point of democracy but it certainly is not, it is a relatively new addition to democracy.

If a person is obviously too stupid to know what they are voting for then why on earth should we be expected to endure the governments they elect? They will always have Big Brother to vote on, unless we manage to get it banned, they would be happy. It isn't right to expect them to vote for both Big Brother and the federal election anyway, too stressful.

Bob Brown; not all bad.

2007-07-11T19:18:00.000+10:00

Austrolabe, and later Catallaxy have raised the issue of the inherent xenophobia within the Greens, publishing the comments of, 'increasingly demented and despotic Bob Brown' on the questioning of migrant doctors after the UK terrorism attacks.

Mr Brown says all immigrants should be screened just as thoroughly as asylum seekers.

“Maybe there’s a wake-up here to the Government, which has been very keen to bring in people who have more than a quarter of a million dollars,” he said.

“That will buy you a way straight into Australia, if you’ve got that in your back pocket, or with high skills, but they need to be no less vetted than the poorest person.” http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/03/1968884.htm?section=australia

I always knew the Greens were against immigrants and Catallaxy got it right with the headline, ‘Greens stirring up xenophobia’, Austrolabe wasn’t quite as on the ball with, ‘Greens: Let’s fear the Foreign Doctor’ but at least they tried;

‘Greens Senator Bob Brown is in the media arguing that the arrest ‘proves’ highly-skilled immigrants, such as overseas doctors, are not being vetted appropriately and therefore pose a security risk’

Yes, that’s exactly what he said, read it again, that’s how it reads to me. These bleeding hearts going around suggesting he wasn’t saying that at all are just trying to be tricky. This proves it, the Greens must be racist.

Not that I disagree with his sentiments entirely, but it annoys me that the Greens get extra kudos for this imaginary nonsense that they are all multicultural friendly. It’s simply tricky, tricky, tricky.

If the Greens keep this up I might have problems stopping the wife voting for them at the next election. Then again, if they keep this up, and drop the silly global warming business, they might be WORTH voting for.

My father in law was a doctor, so I think I can write with some credibility on these medical terrorisms matters.

Cats are useful too ok. Sheesh.

2007-07-09T00:30:00.000+10:00

Was reading An Onymous Lefty this evening and noticed an update to his post on jumping cats. Apparently some, 'crackpot' has written a post on another blog, 'attacking' him for… hold on, he's talking about me.

I invite Jeremy to read the post again, carefully before he jumps to conclusions. I think I make some really good points.

The wife is very upset with me for attacking Jeremy, apparently she thinks he is quite witty and well informed, I didn't even know she knew how to use the computer. She reminded me during tonight's episode that if it wasn't for Jeremy I would have been taking notes on offensive behaviour while watching Big Brother instead of the quality television show Life on Mars.

Look, different strokes and all. But if I want to ever sleep in the bed next to my wife's bed again I have to bear in mind that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Anyway, all going well, I'm off to bed, I'll be posting some photos of my family in the next few days so I encourage any remaining readers out there to pop back in to find out more about me.

Also, if you arrived her via a link from An Onymous Lefty then a big hello to you and thanks for popping by. If you want to read some really riveting stuff then I suggest you make a detour for Tim Blair's insightful blog until next I post. I should be posting some praising material on Tim Blair shortly too.

The Brain Drain.

2007-07-08T15:04:00.000+10:00

What Costello needs to look at next is the appalling situation with Rent Assistance for the unemployed. If anything is driving up rent this is it. It's made it so the only people who can afford to rent are unemployed or welfare students on Austudy. Perhaps they could look at a loans system or, hey here's a novel idea, force them to get work so they can afford to rent or buy some of the, soon to be released land.

Don't get me wrong, I know Austudy is investing in our nations future by ensuring anyone who wants to learn can. I'm not advocating ending Austudy, but perhaps it should only be provided for young people who want to move into professions where we have a skills shortage. And they should guarantee that they will remain in Australia for a set period, once they complete their study, instead of swanning off to Europe and Asia to avoid paying back their HECS.

A lot of people have been repeating this nonsense that there is no Brain Drain because of the Australian Diaspora but, in fact a Brain Gain as our graduates travel overseas and learn in their adopted countries (presumably, according to the theory bringing back the knowledge they learn). The Brain Gain advocates also get all carried with the notion that we get qualified professionals from overseas to make up for the, um Brain Drain (which doesn't actually exist of course…).

That's right, qualified professionals like the five, 'migrant doctors' currently being questioned over possible links to terrorism. Doesn't seem quite fair, we trade our young graduate doctors, trained in healing people, and possibly get a whole stack of doctors trained in blowing people up like, 'Bilal Abdullah, the doctor who was who was arrested after a flaming Jeep was driven into the doors of the arrivals hall of Glasgow Airport'.

Or perhaps they mean Doctor (Death) Patel, who is believed to have sent 80 of his patients to an early death.

Don't get me wrong here, most doctors and other professionals from overseas are well trained and hard working, but why are we training our own only to watch them leave the country? I don't mention the six doctors above to suggest that if a migrant doctor isn't criminally negligent he will blow you up. I simply wanted to question the notion of the Brain Gain.

I have nothing against full fee paying students, who pay their own way through Uni and don't need government assistance, and who pay their HECS upfront (which is financially prudent anyway) travelling wherever they want when they graduate. My eldest son wants to spend time in America. But surely the taxpayer isn't supporting students to do that, it's enough that I'm prepared to support my own flesh and blood but I don't see why I should be helping some kid I never even met just so they can float around Earls Court for two years.

Costello knows what he is talking about.

2007-07-08T14:43:00.000+10:00

Real estate prices have locked out a whole generation of Australians from the great Australian dream of home ownership. To make matter worse the high cost of housing has sent rental prices skyrocketing, even in the poorer suburbs and country towns; where nobody wants to live.

Luckily we have the greatest treasurer ever in parliament at the moment and, as usual he's not afraid to make radical decisions. Peter Costello is asking the state governments to look at locating land that could be opened up for development by private investors.

This is the best news in terms of real estate in ages. By putting more land up for development, and don't forget the superb First Home Buyers/Builders grants, land prices will plummet. The wife is seriously talking about selling our holiday home near Byron Bay before the crash so we can cash in on the new land deal. If prices drop low enough we should be able to get, at least four or five blocks of land with some judicious buying and selling.

Plus, we still haven't purchased a property for our youngest daughter so she's still entitled to the full $14, 000 grant.

Good news indeed.

Moral treason on the web.

2007-07-08T11:35:00.000+10:00

That irritating blogger Jeremy Sear has written an astounding post on his fears that his cat is going to jump on him.

If you haven’t read An Onymous Lefty before, then this is your chance to get in with a ~~top quality~~ blitheringly inane post about his cat Pollie.

You have to love these lefties, the moment they think they have a good reason to kick their enemies on the right they get all gooey inside and can hardly contain their enthusiasm, such as Thursday’s post, ‘Oh, alright, it is about the oil’.

But then, on a bad day and there’s no quotes that can be taken out of context to back up the ludicrous left ideology does he mention the fact that the Malaysian police force just arrested a singer for bearing too much flesh?

Did he think to mention that today is the anniversary of the London bombings?

No, blind to the real world, Jeremy racks his brain for a post topic and chooses, um his cat being naughty.

I am so upset that people are allowed to go around writing this stuff, deliberately confusing our more weak minded citizens to think that the world is a lovely cute place with kittens jumping and playing with wires until some nasty Liberal invades an innocent country for, in fairness, reasons that wouldn’t have gone down too well with the voting public.

And surely that’s part of the deal of being a politician. You have to make the hard choices and package them up so the cowards amongst us will keep you in power long enough for your plans to see fruition.

It may not be treason in a legal sense, but helping undermine the brave efforts of our patriots is surely moral treason.

Update: 11/7/2007

I never said I don't like Polly. I'm quite fond of Polly as it happens.

Have posted further on this topic here.

Terrorism in Australia.

2007-07-06T22:39:00.000+10:00

This nonsense that Islamist based terrorism only began with Sept. 11 is simply distracting and dangerous. The first terrorist attack in Australia I know of was in 1915 when two Muslim Turks ambushed a picnic party at Broken Hill and shot dead a young girl.

The majority of Broken Hill Muslims decried the attack and refused to bury the bodies of the dead Turks when they were presented to them. But you wonder how well it would have gone down for the local Muslims had they openly supported the pair of terrorists. I doubt that 1915 Broken Hill would have been as, 'tolerant' and, 'understanding' as their modern counterparts.

Perhaps they could teach our leaders a thing or two.

You can read more about this early act of terrorism, on Australian soil here.
http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1051016.htm

The war is over?

2007-07-06T22:36:00.000+10:00

Two contrasting editorials today. HAARETZ.com seriously contemplates the notion that terrorism might be on the way out;

“We may be seeing a turning point of sorts, perhaps a part of the beginning of the end of the era of world terrorism”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/878837.html

Then, in USA Today we learn that people are getting used to living with terrorism and it isn’t going to end anytime soon;

“Al-Qaeda leaders have made no secret of their desire to obtain weapons of mass destruction. And the fact that some of those involved in the recent bombing attempts were medical doctors shows how the terrorist cause continues to attract people with advanced technical skills”
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/07/post-6.html

Obviously terrorism isn’t going to end until friendly nations and individuals join in the war to defeat these people. And it isn’t a new thing, I remember the terrorist attacks back in the 70s vividly; same perpetrators.