I'll just pop this observation in here as well, seems an appropriate place.

Having just returned from the Easter Vigil at my local Christian church and having listened to some very uplifting words, I am convinced, more than ever, that those of us who believe in life after death will never be disappointed.

Dear Doog,

«To believe that someone can return from the dead is superstition.»

Well, we have already done so once around the time when our body was born, so isn't it more superstitious to believe that something can be done only once but not twice?

Is Mise,

You have often carried on about your prowess with firearms, but I understand that at your time of life your probably forget what you said 10 minutes ago.

Thanks for sharing your views on the afterlife. It makes sense. It beggars belief that we have had to struggle through this life if there is nothing better at the end of it. It should be great without the whining non-believers and cranky Left.

Hi Ttbn,

Bearing in mind that nearly half of all Australians were either born overseas or have one parent born overseas, 22 % of all Australians with a convict ancestor probably translates to roughly 40-45 % of all Australians born in Australia. Migration massively cuts that back, and helps your 'argument'. I'm sure you're appropriately grateful to them.

On the other hand ...... According to that accursed Ancestry.com, I've got at least eight convict ancestors. As a Sydney-sider, and still a newcomer to Adelaide after fifty years, that's understandable. But do I count as eight, or just one ? Wouldn't that push the proportion up ?

Isn't it amazing how slightly off-the-topic discussion can get :)

Cheers,

Joe

ttbn,

I have never 'carried on' about my prowess with firearms, in fact, I downplay that which I can do.

For instance, in the month before lasts club shoot, 50 metres, aperture sights, I scored 99.6/100 but I came fourth as the first three placegetters all shot 100+ ? in the X ring.
Thus the highest possible is 100 + 10 X.

To see someone who can really shoot see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjsMSToXO60

A Ruger Mk IV is on my wish list when they become available at 'slightly' lower prices than at present, till then I'll stick to my Mk II.

As for my mental capacity see:
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=7732&page=17

Britain's horrific penal laws that raged for over two centuries after the tragedy of the commons - in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland - had become so overheated that virtually anyone who wasn't part of the comfortable gentry (the new owners of the commons) faced criminal prosecution just in order to survive. The British aristocracy and gentry were no longer willing to support the overcrowded jail system. Transportation was their way out.

In the case of the Irish, most were transported for political crimes against the state - i.e. fighting for independence - or for crimes related to poverty. (Although disputed) at the time of Federation, Irish Gaelic was the Australia's second language.

The question is not whether Australia was settled by convicts, but whether the convicts that settled Australia were bad people. At the time of settlement, there were over 100 crimes punishable by death, including stealing a horse or poaching. With such certainty of capital punishment, those who escaped that fate could hardly have been public enemy number one.

As for Christ and Easter and all that jazz, Spring had always been the pagan ritual of rebirth and renewal. Christianity routinely drew from pagan spiritual customs to reinvent and enforce its religious credentials. Easter morphed pagan rebirth/renewal rituals into a torture-porn snuff flick about a naked man nailed to a cross, obsessed with a fantasy of saving the sins of the world because his dad ordered him to do it.

Bunnies and eggs symbolise the old pagan rituals of rebirth and renewal. Give me that over torture-crucifixion any day.