Merc, Thanks for articulating my thoughts so clearly.

Woooooooo... talk about Red Rag to a raging Bull :) FOYLE... *grr*

You said:

Undermining the self-confidence of a child should be a criminal offence. Our children also need courses in ethics not in the churches' warped morality.

I have a different take on it.

"Undermining any sense of 'hope' in a child should be a criminal offense"

Teaching them "Now Children.. there is nothing to believe in except the here and now.. EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY.. for there is nothing else.. take advantage of all the weaklings around you.. use them in the persuit of your own goals.. enhance your own life in every possible way.. don't regard others in any way except utilitarian.. how they can assist you in your own exploits and efforts...yes children.. this is life..."

HAH! well newsflash..the "Church's warped idea" is this:

1/ Love God with your heart.. (your life has purpose.. meaning)
2/ Love your neighbour as yourself...(You have social and communal responsibilities)

What irritates me a tad..is the HIJACKING of Christian values, and the re-packaging them as 'Humanistic/naturalistic' ideas.. when they are just intellectual stolen property!

Socrates, for all his wisdom regarded 'Slaves' as a lower form of life.. Christ came to 'set the captive free'....and restore human dignity to redeemed people.

So..I'll ask a hard question.. (as Jesus did) "Where do you stand before Almighty God"? When Jesus told the 'drooling materialistic crowd' that to follow Him meant self denial.. aaaah.. "Many ceased to follow him thereafter..as this was a harrrd saying"

Yep.. our position b4 God is indeed a hard question.. but an important one.

JESUS of Nazareth...was not 'Poll Driven'....

......politicians to be reelected on the basis of what they have done, only first timers on promises.
......an Opposition unafraid to point out Government misdeeds in case they bite themselves on the bum later on.
......a Government (at all three levels) that acts for its electorate instead of its influence groups.
......a free FOI
......fixed terms to avoid the current BS.
......a God, the list goes on

Conservatives may well wish to forget the polls, they are as always an indication of voter intent, nothing more or less.
While the result of this election is not yet assured the polls tell us of a long term feeling that change is wanted.
I am amazed that for eleven years those polls had become a trophy for the very same conservatives who say forget them now?
Would the remaining time be better spent dealing with the reasons those polls are so good for Labor?
Or so bad for conservatives seemingly blinded by them?

There is a new kid on the block who is flying below the poll radar. A rank outsider so they say, but a rank outsider who has the potential voting power of 2.6 million Australian voters. This new political party comes from the ‘grass roots’ - they are your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your son, your daughter, your grandmother, your grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece or nephew. They are the “Hidden Army” of unpaid family carers who provide care and support for family members with a disability, a mental illness, the frail aged and those with chronic illness - people who need assistance in their daily lives.
The work they do takes place in their own homes,hidden from public view. Governments know all about unpaid family carers – after all family carers save the Australian economy over $33billion each year. But at what cost to carers? The oft touted mutual obligation has not been translated to a partnership of government with carers in their care role. Carers have been left with all the responsibility, little or no assistance and no voice.

Well family carers have finally said enough is enough. Care in the community should not mean an open slather exploitation of family carers for decade after decade and an abrogation of responsibility by government – it should mean a sharing of the care load, a partnership by government with families in providing age appropriate support for those they care for. It should also mean age appropriate transitions from the family home into age appropriate supported accommodation external to the family. Parents should not have to worry about what will happen to their son or daughter when they die.

The Carers Alliance www.carers.org.au will run candidates for the Senate in the upcoming election. Not your problem you might say. Not so! In the blink of an eye, anywhere anytime, you too could become a carer and have your life changed forever through an accident, a stroke, the birth of a child. How you would like to be treated as a carer?

I am struggling to work out the point of this article.

I would expect that professional statisticians would have included distortions in their given errors, and Justin and Andrew's 12% error margin is a guesstimate.

The comparison of polls vs odds is comparing a snapshot of present opinion against future preditions and is not entirely accurate.

The polls as a indicator of present feeling are used to shape policy and strategy by the goverment and opposition close to an election, and suggesting that in depth policy should be the focus of elections is like debating the environmental impact of hosing water onto a burning building, admirable but pointless.