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Tina Turner Dies...
Vale Tina Turner. I loved her hits. What she did with her music campaigns with Rugby League are well remembered. Her commercials were a catalyst that drew people to the game and helped it develop a new level of Professionalism. Long loved and will be long remembered. -
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Time to dissolve the Catholic Church
Simply as an organisation, there is much that I would agree with you about what you have raised. However, belief, especially religious belief is a powerful driver for so many people and provides comfort in their daily lives. We hear about the bad but often overlook the good it can provide. I am not a fan personally of organised religion. I was raised an Anglican, even taught Sunday School and sang in the church choir. My wife is a Buddhist and I have learnt enough to show respect, but not a convert for sure. A simple dissolve is not the answer, but I do believe the Church must reform. No longer handling any criminality inside closed doors, they must become the reporting agency for such matters and seek to clear out the bad ones. Using their religious beliefs and “uniforms” can not be accepted as any protective form. Freeing priests to marry, modernising the celibacy standards they have had, would be a good first step helping Priests to normalise their lives.- 1
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Tina Turner Dies...
Still often play tracks off her Live In Europe CD, I never saw her live, I wish I had - even at 60 she could blow today's "superstars" off the stage. -
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Time to dissolve the Catholic Church
(Image from Justiceinfo.net, link below) It is time to dissolve the Catholic Church. First, it needs to be clear that this post is not an attack on Religious Freedoms or Beliefs, it is an attack on the structure, behavior and rules surrounding the Catholic Church. Catholicism has always baffled me; a young girl got pregnant without having sex, her husband bought that tale, the child was the Son of God who worked for thirty years or so then died an excruciating death but got better, all for my benefit. Hmm... And, every Sunday congregants gather to symbolically eat the flesh and drink the blood of the aforementioned dead guy who got better. Double hmm... The impetus for this post was an article by Reuters (link below) about the Church in Spain and how investigators found horrible abuse; "MADRID, June 2 (Reuters) - An investigation by the Spanish Catholic Church into child sexual abuse by members of the clergy and non-clerical staff has so far identified 728 alleged abusers and 927 victims since the 1940s, according to its first report." This is a shocking headline, but it isn't an uncommon one. Another report in Forbes (link below) regarding the situation last year was even worse; "At Least 330,000 Minors Were Victims Of Sex Abuse In The French Catholic Church Since 1950, Report Finds" An article on Wikipedia (link below) goes through the news from many, many countries; "There have been many cases of sexual abuse of children by priests, nuns, and other members of religious life in the Catholic Church. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, acknowledgement and apologies by Church authorities, and revelations about decades of instances of abuse and attempts by Church officials to cover them up.[3] The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14.[4][5][6][7] Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention during the late 1980s.[8] Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.[9][10]" An article by Justiceinfo.net (link below) looks at investigations world-wide; "With tens of thousands of victims worldwide over several decades, sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church is an unprecedented issue of justice. In order to reveal and confront the magnitude of the crimes, many transitional justice mechanisms are at work, including expert reports, commissions of inquiry, truth commissions and trials. Justice Info here publishes a world map of this fragmented, highly sensitive, often innovative justice in the face of an extraordinary institutional crime." Do all of these articles demonstrate that the world is getting clear and concise information on the issue? The short answer is no. It seems that data is being produced in countries that have independent, outside investigations into abuse in the Catholic Church, but little data is coming from countries that allow the Church to run its own investigation or that are unduly influenced by the Catholic Church itself (this kind of lack of investigations will be familiar to Thai expats) . The conclusion of the bishopaccountability.org site (link below) analysis notes; "All of this means that the Catholic stats are hugely undercounted, and I conclude that paedophilia is a problem far more prevalent than in the general population, despite organisational attempts to tell you otherwise. As Anri states, perhaps this article should be more obviously titled: “Are Catholic Clergy more Likely to Be Paedophiles protected from prosecution for sex crimes and moved to another location of opportunity by a huge wealthy international organization claiming to be the one true moral compass for the world than the General Public?” To which the answer is a resounding: Yes. Yes they are. And there is no spin able to cover that up." It would not be difficult to cite another hundred articles on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church; a simple Google search would keep you busy all day. The question that needs to be asked is this; given that virtually everywhere the Catholic Church has been investigated for sexual crimes many, many have been found, why is the Catholic Church as an organization still permitted to function, unscathed? If the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If FIFA had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If Carrefour, the French retailer and wholesaler, had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If the International Snooker Federation had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If Greenpeace had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If CNN International had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. If the Commonwealth had the same record of sexual abuse by its employees, it would have been dissolved many years ago. So, why not the Catholic Church? Why isn't it declared a criminal organization, its assets sold off to compensate its victims, and dissolved? The Catholic Church (and everyone on the planet) has been aware of the rampant sexual abuse/pedophilia committed by its employees for decades, if not longer. It has been allowed to 'clean itself up', but its efforts were/are minimal, grossly inadequate and ineffective. The time has come to treat the Catholic Church as a global protector/haven for pedophiles and dissolve it, ASAP. If the membership then wishes to re-build a Church without the pedophilia, then that'd be fine by me, once all claims have been settled and all pedophiles expunged and jailed. If not now, when? And, if not now, how many more children will be abused while we wait? Some reading... https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-catholic-church-finds-hundreds-alleged-child-abusers-over-eight-decades-2023-06-02/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-catholic-church-finds-hundreds-alleged-child-abusers-over-eight-decades-2023-06-02/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases#:~:text=The report estimates that 216%2C000,of the victims were boys. https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/45133-sexual-abuse-church-map-justice-worldwide.html https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2021/03/are-catholic-clergy-more-likely-to-be-paedophiles-than-the-general-public-redux/- 1
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News Forum - Aussie couple busted in Phuket for stealing 2.5 million from Chinese victim
STUPID is…..as STUPID does. The wussies must have been smoking the “medical” stuff abundant in Bangkok to attempt this in a BANK. Did they not realize the security systems in there. As for the victim….. Buddha almighty, just how……naive can you be ?- 1
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