Lexi, "I do get enjoyment in delivering alternative viewpoints and
broadening narrow vistas."

Your bountiful charity should start at home.

You constantly sledge Australians for all manner of wrongs, so there is no surprise that you rip into Australians about asylum seekers (a term that already begs the question). Your jaundiced view is not shared by Bill Shorten though, as is obvious from his stance on Q&A, Monday 22 July, 2013. See at 28:50 for instance.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3795782.htm

SPQR,

The ABC is pretty selective these days on what it does and does not report.

For instance, this morning they were touting newspoll which had the LNP two points ahead, while ignoring the Morgan poll which has it the other way around.

The ABC hasn't pursued the issue of Ashby and Brough and their little collusion/contrivance to get Slipper.

Uhlmann went fairly easy on Abbott in their last interview (Abbott attended 7:30 while Leigh Sales was having a day off - how convenient)

I wouldn't go classifying the ABC as soft on Labor "these days".

Here's one who came by boat.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/from-refugee-to-businessman-a-success-story-20130721-2qcqq.html

An aspiration for all posters:

A plea

Dear God

complicate my world
make my thoughts subtle
give me nuanced perspectives
disturb my settled ways

deprive me of easy solutions
demolish my glib explanations
disrupt my black-and-white vision
keep me from being right

starve me of ready-made beliefs
upset my certainties
hide from me the truth
increase my doubt

banish me from the tribe
force me to fend for myself
send me on perilous journeys
put obstacles in my way

provide me with questions not answers
puzzle me with paradox
remain hidden from me
leave me wondering

John Pfitzner

http://christchurch.net.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/March_2013_in_Johns_memory.pdf

Cossomby: Here's one who came by boat

Yes, there are some good one, one cannot deny that, unfortunately for every good one there are 100 bad ones. Drug runners (see bikies), Jihadist sympathizers, Boat people organizers, rapist, Fanatics wanting to make Australia an Islamic Caliphate (Sharia Law), Multiple Wives claiming the Dole.

Remember, You saw it here. As Abu Imam & Ithakar said, "there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim."

Brilliant, Cossomby Sounds like something called 'life'.

My dear Lexi,

Really there are two issues here which get confused: what should be the quota and, once that is settled, how to control the tap, so that only that many are processed and re-settled.

The first is easy to arrange, or declare: 20,000 this year and maybe 28,000 next year.

but the second is what we are fighting over, how to stop the flow of 'Illegals', by whatever name, above and beyond that approved quota, whatever it may be.

Slo now that you have agreed that there Is such a thing as an acceptable quota, 20,000 or 28,000 or whatever, the question now is: how do we stop the flow of people wanting to get around that quota, whatever it may be ? They may not be able to slide into Australia on the bitter tears of adolescents like SHY, you know.

Personally, I don't think the PNG 'solution' is moral, practical or sensible. It presents problems for our cousins across the Pond, to kick up their annual intake from its current massive 750.

Bottom line: regardless of quotas, how to stop the flow. I still think flying people straight back to their point of departure, to a status quo ante, with per capita compensation for the host governments for the inconvenience and embarrassment caused, might work.

Or do we take the whole 46,000,000 ?

Love,

Joe