Police scathing of Church’s handling of abuse:

JANE LEE   Catholic Church has not reported a single case of abuse in more than 50 years: police.

The staid old council committee room at Parliament House in Spring Street has surely seen many shocking revelations over its gilded 155-year history. Few could have been more pertinent than those of Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton this morning.

Following up the explosive police submission to the state inquiry into the churches’ handling of sex abuse, the deputy commissioner unloaded more broadsides attacking the Catholic Church’s obstruction of police investigations into paedophile clergy going back six decades.

He unleashed his shocking litany in calm, measured tones, seated at a venerable table opposite the six committee members, watched by framed dignitaries on the wall and a packed chamber of visitors.

He said the police had for the first time aggregated their sexual offence statistics by clergy and church workers since January 1956: 2110 offences against 519 victims, overwhelmingly perpetrated by Catholic priests and mostly against boys aged 11 or 12. Yet the church had not reported a single crime to police.

He said abusers targeted children after funerals, when they came for comfort suffering emotional distress, and of course at schools, camps, classrooms, homes, sickbays, even the confessional. The church’s pattern of obstruction — alerting offenders that they were being investigated, destroying evidence, hiding documents from warrants, seeking injunctions to stop or delay police, moving offenders, discouraging victims from coming to police and much more — had not noticeably improved with the new protocol after 1996 that the Church claimed fixed the problems.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/awful-tally-of-abuse-opens-inquiry-20121019-27vqi.html#ixzz29imgEAPw

Police scathing of Church’s handling of abuse

Date  October 19, 2012 – 1:58PM

Jane Lee

JANE LEE REPORTS FROM THE CHILD ABUSE INQUIRY

Victoria Police says the Catholic Church has exacerbated the scourge of sexual abuse in the community by protecting clergy accused of abuse and not referring victims’ reports to police.

Deputy Police commissioner Graham Ashton was one of the first people to give testimony at the first hearing of the state inquiry into the handling of sexual abuse by religious and other organisations today.

“Sexual offending in our community is increasing … in any large cross-section of any community you will get sexual offending,” he said.

“The fact that there are then processes that then wrap around an offender in the church cohort only exacerbates that likelihood of offending rather than actually preventing it.”

“Victoria Police has concerns that existing protocols within religious organisations may be more focused on internal church issues such as legal liability and public relations rather than long-term interest of victims.”

He was sceptical of the Church’s submission to the inquiry, which stated it had reversed its long-held position against mandatory reporting of abuse, except in circumstances where it needed to uphold the sanctity of the confessional.

“The Catholic Church have said that their protocols have changed … if they’re serious then they should be reporting rather than waiting for victims to come forward.”

Mr Ashton said the Church’s current protocol for handling child sexual allegations – its internal complaints systems Towards Healing and the Melbourne Archdiocese’s Melbourne Response – lacked transparency and drove under-reporting of sexual abuse, as well as heightening adult impacts of abuse.

He questioned the need for either internal process to exist, saying the Church’s protocols are “based on a flawed notion of independence” with Melbourne Response’s independent commissioner Peter O’Callaghan appointed and paid for by the church.

“If a stranger were to enter the grounds of a church and rape the child then that rape would be reported to police and action expected,” Mr Ashton said.

“But if that stranger happens to be a member of the clergy, such as a priest, the matter would not be … a special process is wrapped around him which discourages a victim to complain to police, seeks to ensure the offending clergy member is not only not prosecuted and jailed, but never entered on the sex offenders register.”

He told the committee that Victoria Police had conducted its largest analysis of child sexual abuse in religious organisations, taking in cases reported to it since 1956, but had not had a single referral from the Church in that time.

Mr Ashton’s testimony ended with a small round of applause from some members of the audience of about 50 people, which included victims, victims’ advocates and journalists.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-scathing-of-churchs-handling-of-abuse-20121019-27vti.html#ixzz29ilRyNyW

This man’s commentary is right!

I no longer give a single solitary f*** who wins the next Le Tour, or Giro, or La Vuelta!

But I will continue to watch these events, purely, and simply, to appreciate, and admittedly, be awed, about the beautiful countryside of Europe. I love the historical narratives that the commentators make, on some of the countryside, and many of the historic buildings that the drug cheats ride through, or pass, but that are still nearby. 

But as far as who wins a stage, or a mountain climb, I no longer give a sh**. And more’s the pity, because the clean rider’s suffer for this. They are the real heroes, but as with most heroes, their efforts, and achievements, will go unnoticed. 

It is for these people, the innocents, that my heart breaks!
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Let the drug cheats have their way

Date  October 18, 2012 – 7:52AM

John Birmingham tells stories. Most of them true.

Is there a sport more rotten with drug abuse than pro cycling? Maybe weightlifting. Or heroin running. Yeah, drugs are probably more common in heroin running than professional cycling. So that’s a starting point for the sport’s comeback, I suppose.

On the other hand, does cycling even need to make a comeback? The various international bodies that run the sport seem to be having one of their perennial dope fiend hunts at the moment but really, who are they fooling? The sport’s been so rotten for so long that the stink of it never, ever goes away. It can’t. As soon as one scandal clears, another one breaks.

The sport’s been so rotten for so long that the stink of it never, ever goes away

I’m gonna suggest something a little left field now, and I’m not being entirely stupid about it. A little, but not entirely stupid.

Perhaps cycling could become a demonstration sport at the next Olympics. The first sport to demo what happens when we just give up and let rip with the drugs. Let the dopers have their way. These guys are never going away, because the pressures that drive them or entice them to load up with the chemicals or monkey gland extracts or whatever are never going away. As long as someone thinks they can beat the tests, they’ll try, and as long as everyone knows that , the incentive to cheat is amplified.

So why not just say, bugger it. Let ‘em dope.

The results on the road or track or wherever can only improve, and the occasional sight of some steroidal fiend coming off their pushy as their monstrously disfigured heart explodes out through their mouth can only serve as a cautionary tale to the rest of us.

Seriously. Why do we bother getting worked up over this stuff any more? Why invest so much time and capital in trying to beat the cheats? Just let them cheat openly. In all sports. Let the Chinese pharmaceutical industry go head to head with the US and European multinationals. Would it make the spectacle of competition any less spectacular? It would be no more unfair than a team turning up with a radical new piece of equipment based on some quantum leap in materials science.

I for one find myself struggling to give much of a toss about any sport letting the dopers run free. And if there remains a large enough cohort of athletes who don’t fancy becoming a human drug cabinet, well, they can compete in their own, amateur league.

This stuff is never going away. Not while there’s so much money at stake.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/let-the-drug-cheats-have-their-way-20121017-27rst.html#ixzz29ex49G9F

And everyone said the Carbon Tax was a bad thing!

Eat shit, you dumb shits!
___________________

Power pollution plunges

Date  October 18, 2012

• Lenore Taylor

Hazelwood power station outside Morwell in Victoria. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui

THE carbon tax has helped to drive a sharp fall in the emissions intensity of Australia’s power generation as coal-fired stations are closed, moth-balled or sell less electricity.

As Victoria’s Yallourn brown-coal-fired power station became the latest to announce a production cut, experts said falling demand for electricity, more renewables such as wind farms and solar, and the carbon price were all pushing Australia’s coal-fired stations out of the market, making generation cleaner.

Electricity sold into the east coast market in the three months since the tax was introduced created on average 7.6 per cent less carbon dioxide for each megawatt hour of power, an analysis of figures compiled by the Australian Energy Market Operator shows.

 

Compared with the same three months last year, the decline in emissions was about 6.3 per cent, after seasonal differences are ironed out.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet talked up the role of the $23-a-tonne carbon price in the shift.

”It is significant that the emissions intensity of the electricity generation system has fallen in the first quarter of the carbon price,” he said.

”It is also significant that … about 3000 megawatts of high-polluting electricity generation has closed or phased down.

”The carbon price is a key driver of these changes, although it is not the only factor at work.”

Coalition resources spokesman Ian MacFarlane said the cost of the shift in power generation was being paid by workers.

”The carbon tax might be causing people to cut back on usage, and it is certainly slowing manufacturing, combined with the renewables energy target [RET] that means coal is being taken offline,” he said.

But energy analyst Hugh Saddler said that, at its current level, the carbon price was ”more important as a statement of intent”.

The major reasons that black and brown coal generation was being ”pushed out of the market” were falling demand and the RET, he said.

The chief executive of the Energy Supply Association, Matthew Warren, also said the decrease had more to do with lower demand.

”As demand has softened, renewables have kept their market share because that is mandated through the RET, so brown and black coal generation has acted as the shock absorber,” he said.

The decline in emissions intensity was sharpest in South Australia (16.1 per cent) and Victoria (8.7 per cent). In NSW it was 4.3 per cent. The dip began in June, shortly before the introduction of carbon pricing, as the market began to factor in the change.

The rapid decline in coal-fired generation has led to industry calls for changes to the RET to slow the deployment of renewables, but the Greens said that ”when even coal companies are complaining that solar and wind power are outcompeting them, you know that things have changed forever in our country”.

There has been a spate of recent closures and mothballings of coal-fired plants.

In Queensland, Tarong and Swanbank B have closed capacity; in NSW, the closure of Munmorah has been confirmed; and in Victoria, Energybrix is no longer producing power for the grid and Yallourn yesterday announced the closure of one unit. In South Australia, the Playford B station has shut.

Explaining its decision to cut one of Yallourn’s four units,

EnergyAustralia, formerly known as TRUenergy, blamed the carbon price for significantly increasing the cost of operations and the RET for ”acting to suppress wholesale electricity prices”.

While wholesale power prices have been declining, inefficiencies in the retail market, including over-investment in electricity networks, have meant household bills have continued to soar.

The Productivity Commission yesterday recommended changes, including eliminating regulations that allow ”excessive” returns to network businesses.

In June, the Australian Energy Market Operator said demand in the national electricity market was 5.7 per cent lower than forecast because of increased energy efficiency, solar photovoltaics and a decline in energy-hungry manufacturing.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/power-pollution-plunges-20121017-27rn9.html#ixzz29Z9H7J5D

Lance Armstrong – destroyer of faiths! And of true athletes!

The lives, and achievements, of genuine athletes, this evil man, and his lying and cheating conspirators and co-horts, have destroyed, beggars description! 

There can be no man-made penalty severe enough, to punish this man!  All I can hope is, that Karma will punish him to the fullest extent! And I would not wish it on him, but should the forces that be, decide to punish him, for his abuse of the second chance of life he was given, then I would not shed, one, single, solitary, tear, for the death of this disgusting man!
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Armstrong stands down from charity

Date   October 18, 2012 – 12:33AM

Austin, Texas

Lance Armstrong announces he is to step down as chairman of the Livestrong cancer-fighting charity.Photo: Getty Images

Lance Armstrong says he is stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so the group can focus on its mission instead of the doping allegations surrounding the former cycling champion.

The move came a week after the US Anti-Doping Agency released a massive report detailing accusations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams when he won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005.

The document’s purpose was to show why USADA has banned him from cycling for life and ordered 14 years of his career results erased – including those Tour titles.

It contains sworn statements from 26 witnesses, including 11 former teammates.

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Armstrong, who was not paid a salary as chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will remain on its 15-member board.

His duties leading the board will be turned over to vice-chairman Jeff Garvey, who was founding chairman in 1997.

“This organisation, its mission and its supporters are incredibly dear to my heart,” Armstrong said in a statement.

“Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship.”

Foundation spokeswoman Katherine McLane said the decision turns over the foundation’s big-picture strategic planning to Garvey.

Armstrong strongly denies doping, but did not fight USADA accusations through arbitration, saying he thinks the process is unfair.

Armstrong’s inspiring story of not only recovering from testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain but then winning the world’s best-known bike race helped his foundation grow from a small operation in Texas into one of the most popular charities in the country.

Armstrong drew legions of fans – and donations – and insisted he was drug free at a time when doping was rampant in professional cycling.

In 2004, the foundation introduced the yellow “Livestrong” bracelets, selling more than 80 million and creating a global symbol for cancer awareness and survivorship.

“As my cancer treatment was drawing to an end, I created a foundation to serve people affected by cancer. It has been a great privilege to help grow it from a dream into an organisation that today has served 2.5 million people and helped spur a cultural shift in how the world views cancer survivors,” Armstrong said.

As chairman, Armstrong did not run the foundation’s day-to-day operations, which are handled by Livestrong president and chief executive Doug Ulman.

Armstrong’s statement said he will remain a visible advocate for cancer issues, and he is expected to speak at Friday night’s 15th anniversary gala for Livestrong in Austin.

“My family and I have devoted our lives to the work of the foundation and that will not change. We plan to continue our service to the foundation and the cancer community. We will remain active advocates for cancer survivors and engaged supporters of the fight against cancer,” Armstrong said.

The foundation reported a spike in contributions in late August in the days immediately after Armstrong announced he would no longer fight doping charges and officials moved to erase his Tour victories.

Daniel Borochoff of CharityWatch said last week it may take some time for donors to digest the allegations against Armstrong.

“Individuals that admire and support an individual who is later found out to be severely tarnished, don’t want to admit it, don’t want to admit that they’ve been duped,” Borochoff said. “People, though, do need to trust a charity to be able to support it.”

AP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/armstrong-stands-down-from-charity-20121017-27rz0.html#ixzz29Z3Rustp

The Australian people no longer have any moral standards!

The actions that advertisers have taken, to once again support Alan Jones’ radio show, proves to me, without any doubt, whatsoever, that the Australian people, no longer have any self-respect for themselves, morality, ethics, or just plain good manners! 

This man is an STUPID individual! How anybody can listen to this moron’s show, is just beyond me! But what it does prove, is that the listener’s are even more stupid than the man himself! 

When will we start creating a better society, for ourselves, out children, and grandchildren, and future generations? If destructive forces like this man are allowed to continue, none of this will happen.

Why do people support such negativeness?  What has our society degenerated too? Support boycott’s against companies whose only concern is for the $, and none for the well-being of mankind!
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Sponsors return to Jones’ show

Date   October 15, 2012 – 10:03PM

Benjamin Millar

A FRESH protest campaign is set to roll out tomorrow morning as advertisers return to Alan Jones’ program.

The Macquarie Radio Network last week took the unprecedented step of suspending all advertising on Jones’ 2GB breakfast show after a week of public pressure following outcry over his comments about the death of Julia Gillard’s father.

The show lost more than 70 sponsors and advertisers and the suspension was expected to cost the network more than $80,000 a day.

A massive social media and email campaign targeted businesses seen to support the Jones program after news broke of Jones’ comment to a Young Liberals function last month that the Prime Minister’s father had “died of shame” over her “lies”.

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2GB responded to the initial outrage by quarantining the show from the rest of the network.

An online petition at change.org calling on 2GB to sack Jones over his comments has so far attracted more than 115,000 supporters.

Jones lashed out at the online campaign against him as “cyberbullying”.

One advertiser reportedly received 6000 emails in a single day calling for them to pull their advertising.

Branding experts told Fairfax earlier this month that many advertisers would return within a month or so of pulling their ads.

Macquarie Radio Network executive chairman Russell Tate confirmed advertisers will be returning to the program tomorrow morning.

Mr Tate would not say how many were resuming advertising and when asked to name them he said; “No, I absolutely will not”.

The ‘Destroy the Joint’ protest group which spearheaded a campaign targetting advertisers released a statement criticising their expected return.

“Our community politely requested that Macquarie Radio Network and its employees sign our Pledge to stop sexism and misogyny. They have ignored our repeated requests.

“But now we know that Macquarie Radio Network no longer cares about community standards. So it is up to us to let advertisers know what the Australian community accepts.”

Destroy The Joint is urging supporters to listen in to the Alan Jones show tomorrow morning and report which companies are advertising by posting on its Facebook page.

More than a dozen sponsors including Woolworths, Coles, Mercedes-Benz and ING Direct had cancelled or suspended advertising on his program – estimated to make around $2 million a month for the radio network – by last Tuesday.

Slater & Gordon Lawyers national media & communications manager Angela Bell said the business had no intention of starting its advertising back up on the show tomorrow.

Social media erupted tonight on news of Jones’ return.

Users took to Twitter and Facebook vowing they would continue contacting advertisers and boycotting their products in “round two”.

– with Melissa Davey

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/sponsors-return-to-jones-show-20121015-27n1n.html#ixzz29MkuWm9I

Who can ever again, trust a winner of Le Tour!

There can no longer be any doubt that Lance Armstrong has been the biggest cheat, sport has ever known. And I am happy to say, to people I spoke to, all those many years ago, both friends, and acquaintances,saying that Armstrong was not all he appeared to be, I TOLD YOU SO!!! 

But what amazes me, is that people, in all sports, but especially cycling, still keep cheating! Every year, in Le Tour, more and more cheats are exposed.

Are the world’s elite cyclists, really such stupid people?  Are they really so incredibly, and utterly stupid people? And, as a result, why would one want to watch a sport, whose participants contain absolute idiots.

And never knowing, if the winner this year, will be found to have cheated, in tests conducted in subsequent years. And who can believe again, that a stage winner, is clean. And that he has deserved his victory.
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Australian cyclist named in drug case

Date  October 13, 2012

Rupert Guinness

Sports Reporter

View more articles from Rupert Guinness

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The GreenEDGE team’s Matt White. Photo: Supplied

EXCLUSIVE

THE head of Australia’s new cycling team, Matt White, has been named in the United States Anti-Doping Agency investigation into Lance Armstrong as a drug user by one of his former teammates central to the inquiry.

White, who rode on the Armstrong-led US Postal Services team from 2001 to 2003, is now the head sports director of Orica-GreenEDGE cycling team. He is also Cycling Australia’s professional co-ordinator and a national selector. And as part of his Cycling Australia position, he was men’s road team sports director at the London Olympics.

The 38-year-old Sydneysider was named in USADA’s ”reasoned decision” document from evidence submitted by another ex-USPS teammate, American Floyd Landis.

Landis, who tested positive for excessive testosterone levels in the 2006 Tour de France that he initially won, only to lose the title and get a two-year ban, names White in a copied email in the USADA dossier.

His name is in an ”exhibit” to Landis’ affidavit that adjoins its 202-page ”reasoned decision” for the handing down of a life ban to Armstrong and stripping all his results since August 1998.

In point 35 of Landis’ 14-page affidavit, he describes how the then USPS head sports director, Johan Bruyneel, ”initiated a separate conversation over the phone with me on how to use Human Growth Hormone [HGH]” during a training block for the 2003 Vuelta a Espana.

Landis recalls how he bought HGH and Andriol, an oral testosterone, from team ”trainer” Jose Marti, who lived in Valencia, Spain, and along with Bruyneel and doctor Luis Garcia del Moral were three of five former Armstrong associates also charged by USADA. Landis says: ”I then spent substantial time training with fellow USPS team members ‘Rider-9′ and Michael Barry and shared, and discussed, the use of HGH, testosterone and EPO with them while training.”

Barry, a Canadian, has admitted to doping and, while now retired, was banned by USADA on Wednesday for six months and stripped of his results from May 13, 2003 to July 31, 2006.

The redaction of a name and insertion of ”Rider-9” is to keep that person’s identity anonymous. But it becomes clear in ”Exhibit B” of Landis’ affidavit in a copied document titled ”Forwarded conversation”, sent from Landis to an anonymous recipient on April 30, 2010.

On page 2 of that document, the last two lines of the first paragraph that again refer to 2003 are almost verbatim to what Landis said in his affidavit. They read: ”While training for that Vuelta, I spent a good deal of time training with Matthew White and Michael Barry and shared the testosterone and EPO that we had and discussed the use thereof while training.”

White is not the only Australian named in USADA’s ”reasoned decision” into its case against Armstrong, Bruyneel, del Moral, Marti, Dr Pedro Celaya and Italian trainer Michele Ferrari.

Other Australians named include Queensland’s Allan Davis and the ACT’s Michael Rogers. Davis, now a member of Orica-GreenEDGE, has been named in evidence pertaining to the 2006 Operation Puerto sting in Spain. While he was later cleared by a Spanish court, the USADA dossier names Davis in Appendix K, among riders connected to Dr Eufamiano Fuentes.

Rogers, who rides for the British Sky team, was named in American rider Levi Leipheimer’s affidavit as one of several cyclists who attended training camps in 2005 at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, with Ferrari. But Rogers told The Age that during his association with Ferrari while on the T-Mobile team, he was never offered drugs. Attempts to contact White were unsuccessful.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/australian-cyclist-named-in-drug-case-20121012-27ijm.html#ixzz295jcpUKs

The catholic church is no f****** different to the Taliban!

They are both disgusting, revolting, entities, that care nothing for the people. That care nothing for the weak, the underprivileged, and those that cannot fight back. They are both bullies. They both work to double standards, in that on the one hand, they claim to speak in the name of God, and on the other, commit atrocities against all on mankind.

They are contemptible organizations, that should, like the plagues of the past, be wiped from the face of this earth!
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Church policy of silence exposed

Date  October 12, 2012

Barney Zwartz

Church denies it impeded police

A scathing parliamentary submission alleging the Catholic Church covered up sex abuse is full of inaccuracies, the Church says.

THE Catholic Church in Victoria, which publicly promised to be open about child sex abuse by priests, has gagged everyone from bishops down from speaking to the media and refused to give The Age the phone number or email address of its appointed media spokesman.

It has sent a four-page media protocol to religious orders and diocesan offices throughout the state, including a set response to stonewall journalists, as it prepares for the public hearings of the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations.

The church’s inquiry spokesman, Father Shane Mackinlay, told The Age last month that any questions or requests should go to James O’Farrell at Catholic Communications, who would pass them on as he thought necessary. He declined repeatedly to provide his own contact details.

Catholic Church leaders have imposed damage-control tactics. Photo: Angela Wylie

According to the media protocol, the church’s general strategy throughout the inquiry will be to decline to comment. It will reply that it does ”not want to compromise the role of the committee” and that ”it would be inappropriate for the church to comment on the proceedings of the inquiry or on submissions made to it, until its recommendations are known”.

The church went into damage control about the parliamentary inquiry early, sending a pastoral letter from the four bishops to every church in the state in August warning parishioners that they would hear disturbing reports about the church’s past failure to respond to child sexual abuse by clergy. That prophecy was fulfilled yesterday, even before the public hearings begin next week, with explosive allegations by Victoria Police that investigations had been hindered and paedophile priests protected.

In September, the same leaders released a statement about their joint submission to the inquiry, titled ”Facing the Truth”.

”The submission shows how the church of today is committed to facing up to the truth and to not disguising, diminishing or avoiding the actions of those who have betrayed a sacred trust,” the bishops said.

However, the church protocols for media inquiries show the church of today plans to be extremely careful about precisely how it faces up.

If a journalist rings a diocese or religious order representative, they are to reply that they have to get more information and will ring back, then immediately contact James O’Farrell. If he says the query relates only to that diocese or order, they can respond. If it is a ”whole of church issue”, Mr O’Farrell will take over.

Father Mackinlay said yesterday the protocol was merely a matter of co-ordinating the church’s response. ”When victims are giving their testimony we don’t see it as our role to make any commentary or give any response but to respect their right to have their say,” he said.

He said the church had not told parishes what to tell journalists.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/church-policy-of-silence-exposed-20121011-27fp5.html#ixzz28zsXFqnF

Catholic Church Crimes!

Lest you folks think all my vengeance against wrongs done to the common people, those who cannot defend themselves, by persons the people should have unqualified trust in, is directed only against the most primitive of all religions, Islam, do not be misled. In my opinion, the Catholic Church, simply because it is the largest Christian organisation, is the one most guilty of committing crimes against humanity, and the people, as are those of the leaders of Islam. 

To me, the atrocities these dregs of society, have committed against the people, are equal in abhorrence. And if one was to take into account the people that have died, in the name of, or because of, these religions, then the Catholic Church, is by far, the biggest criminal organisation, ever to have existed on this planet, since the advent of mankind. 

Mankind’s nature, is such, that, as soon as the people accept an individual, or a deity, as a supreme head, of any organisation, or religion, or cult, that person, and then, his, or her, followers will all become corrupt. History has proven that to be true, time and time again.

And, it is time, that ALL persons who have committed these crimes, where, they, mortal beings, such as you and I, ,…, NOT Gods!, BUT still, have put themselves into the positions of God, and put to death, so many innocent persons. AND ALL IN THE NAME OF GOD! Whose God? Which God? Surely, if there was only ONE GOD, then surely, other religions would not exist!

HOW DARE ANY ‘human being’, DARE, TO SPEAK IN THE NAME OF GOD!!!

How I hate stupidity!!! And the toll it takes on our lives. What a waste of energy!
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Police slam Catholic Church

Date   October 11, 2012

Jane Lee

VICTORIA Police has launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church, accusing it of deliberately impeding its investigations into child abuse.

In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by churches, signed by Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, police recommend that some of the church’s actions to hinder investigations be criminalised.

The submission lists a number of ways in which the church has hindered the criminal justice process, including dissuading victims of sexual crimes from reporting them to police, failing to engage with police and alerting suspects of allegations against them, ”which may have resulted in loss of evidence”.

Illustration: Ron Tandberg

It says the church moved or protected known or suspected sexual offenders. While the submission notes the church has recently improved co-operation with police, in some cases it has been reluctant to provide information even when a warrant was issued.

Police also say the typical delay in reports of sex offences within the church means more reports of alleged offences from the 1990s and early 2000s are expected in coming years.

Another submission, by lawyer Vivian Waller, who has represented more than 70 abuse victims, says that now-Cardinal George Pell refused to listen to a boy who was raped in Ballarat in 1969 soon after the event. But Father Pell was in the room when the victim told another priest what happened. Both times the victim tried to tell his story he was badly beaten, though not by the now Archbishop of Sydney, the submission says.

The inquiry into the handling of abuse by religious and other organisations was established in April after years of campaigning by victims, advocates and media, and particularly after a series of articles in The Age revealing the extent of abuse within the church and the mishandling of allegations by church-appointed officials.

Confidential police reports detail the suicides of at least 40 people sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Victoria and say it appeared the church knew about a shockingly high rate of suicides and premature deaths but had ”chosen to remain silent”. The Age also reported earlier this month that a senior police investigator had told victims of a suspected Catholic paedophile of his ”grave” concerns that his investigation into their alleged abuser was being derailed and that ”pro-church police members” might have interfered in his inquiry.

The Catholic Church has consistently acknowledged past mistakes but maintains it has improved its protocols for dealing with victims since 1996, when it established its national Towards Healing internal inquiry process.

But police, in their submission, are particularly critical of this and the Melbourne archdiocese’s equivalent process, the Melbourne Response, in which victims may not be legally represented, saying it appeared to be a ”de facto substitute for criminal justice” and detrimental to prosecuting suspected sexual criminals.

The Melbourne Response states on its website that in the past 14 years the church has compensated 300 people as victims of sexual abuse and identified 86 offenders, of whom 60 were priests. Yet not one complainant was referred to Victoria Police, the submission says.

”Some of the offenders may be laicised, however this is rare. In many cases offenders are moved to other positions within the church which have a limited opportunity for offending, or provided with counselling,” police say.

”The inquiry process restricts the ability of victims to have the offender brought to account through the criminal justice system, and promotes the culture of secrecy which prevents more victims speaking out.”

Police say the system’s independent commissioner and assessors are not trained or resourced to deal with the allegations and do not have the benefit of recent changes to the way in which police typically interview victims of sexual assault to reduce trauma.

”Indeed, we are aware of circumstances where victims have been required to confront alleged offenders where they have been required to repeat allegations in the presence of these alleged offenders,” police say.

”Victoria Police has offered to provide this briefing to the Catholic Church on two occasions but these offers have not been accepted to date.”

In its submission to the inquiry, the church says it has removed its opposition to mandatory reporting of clergy and church workers suspected of abusing children – apart from the sanctity of the confessional.

It says it would support reporting all allegations if police guaranteed to respect the victim’s right to privacy.

Justice Philip Cummins proposed extending mandatory reporting in his report of the Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children inquiry, and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said in a statement yesterday that clergy should operate under the same rules as doctors, nurses, teachers and police.

He said all serious crimes should be reported to police but that there was a tension between calls to report all abuse allegations and the wish of some victims to keep their experiences private and unreported to police.

A system should be set up in which all details except those that identify the victim are reported to police, on the basis that police powers of compulsion are not used to discover the victim’s identity, the church says.

The submission, from Victoria’s four diocesan bishops, acknowledges that the church was slow to believe victims, underestimated the often devastating harm, took too long to respond effectively, believed offenders’ denials or that they could be cured and at first favoured a legal response rather than a pastoral one.

The independent commissioner for the Melbourne Response, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, told The Age last night: ”I will respond to the police submission by providing written submissions to the parliamentary committee. It is therefore inappropriate to make comment. Safe to say that there is much in the police submission which is seriously misconceived and quite wrong and which I will correct and refute in my submission to the committee.”

Church spokesman Father Shane Mackinlay said: ”We are reviewing the police submission and many others. Facing The Truth [the church’s response to the inquiry] addresses many of the matters raised by the police.”

With BARNEY ZWARTZ

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-slam-catholic-church-20121010-27dr2.html#ixzz28uPocPtF

Only in an Islamic country could this happen!

This is typical of behaviour in Muslim countries. Seems that women, no matter how innocent, are always guilty of the most heinous crimes, while men need not answer to anybody, for anything. Seems also, that the great prophet Mohammed’s religion, is only for men. errrrr, I use the term men, very very loosely, for these male creatures that walk upon this earth, definitely cannot be called men! Misogynists, yes, cowards, yes, stupid, yes, but men, definitely not!
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Indonesian school expels raped student

AFP October 10, 2012, 1:36 pm

An Indonesian school has expelled a 14-year-old girl, claiming she “tarnished” the institution’s

image after she was raped by a trafficking syndicate, a child rights activist said yesterday.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection, said a private school just outside Jakarta expelled the teenager during a ceremony attended by pupils on Monday.

A teacher told the girl she had “tarnished the school’s image”, said Sirait. “The school has worsened her trauma by humiliating her in front of hundreds of schoolmates,” he told AFP.

The commission has sent a letter of protest to the school’s management and will also write to the education ministry, asking them to review its licence, said Sirait.

“The girl was the victim of child trafficking. The school should have helped her to cope with her trauma,” he said.

Sirait said the teenage girl was contacted through Facebook by a member of a trafficking syndicate that imprisoned her for a week last month.

“The school failed to ensure child rights for access to education,” he said.

The school could not be reached for comment.

More disgusting actions by sleazy creatures from the primordial soup!

The fact that the Talibana monkeys can survive, only means that they have the support of the wider community. Actions all over the world have shown that ‘people power’ can bring down and destroy the most despotic and feared governments and organisations.

So then, it is the same with the Talibana. They can be destroyed if the people wish it so.

And the existence of a religion, that can permit this sort of behaviour, is anathema to educated peoples everywhere! A disgrace! An absolute disgrace!
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Outrage as girl who spoke out shot in the head

Date   October 10, 2012 – 11:25AM

Jon Boone in Islamabad

Taliban shoots Pakistani schoolgirl in head

Malala Yousufzai became famous for speaking out against the Taliban and advocating for education, but she is now fighting for her life.

An attempt by the Taliban to kill a 14-year old girl, famous for speaking out against the Islamic militants and their attacks on girls’ education, has triggered a wave of national revulsion in Pakistan.

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck while she sat with classmates on a school bus as it prepared to drive students home after morning classes in Mingora, a city in the Swat Valley where major operations were conducted in 2009 to crush a Taliban insurgency. She was taken to hospital before being whisked by military helicopter to an intensive care ward in the city of Peshawar.

He said the mood of revulsion extended beyond just the “educated elite”, saying the switchboard at Radio Pakistan’s Peshawar studio had “lit up like Christmas lights” when phone lines were opened for people across the country to contact a phone-in programme

Police said a bearded man approached the bus and asked which of the girls was Malala. When one of the other girls pointed at her she denied who she was. The gunman then shot both girls, although police say a total of three people were wounded.

Shot in the head … Malala Yousafzai, 14. Photo: AFP

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan quickly claimed responsibility on behalf of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani offshoot of the Taliban movement which became notorious for its restrictions of women’s freedom and female education during the five years before late 2001 when they were in power in Afghanistan.

“She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and she was calling President Obama her ideal leader,” Ehsan said. “She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas,” he said, referring the main ethnic group in Pakistan and Afghanistan from which the Taliban finds most of its followers.

The Taliban had previously announced the girl was on their “hit list” because of her backing for “the imposition of secular government” in Swat.

Malala Yousafzai … shot on a school bus. Photo: AFP

With the country’s boisterous news channels turning their attention to detailed discussions of the incident, leaders of all the mainstream parties issued statements harshly condemning the incident. Raja Pervez Ashraf, the prime minister, ordered the helicopter be sent to move her from Mingora, while Asif Ali Zarari sent flowers to her bedside.

Yousafzai won fame in 2009 during the Pakistani army operations to crush a Taliban insurgency that had taken hold in the Swat Valley, a beautiful mountainous area three hours drive from Islamabad. It was a popular place for Pakistani tourists before the Taliban began a takeover of the area, closing girls schools, forcing men to grow beards and beheading their opponents.

At a time when even Pakistani politicians appeared to be appeasing the Taliban, Yousafzai spoke out against the militants. She wrote a blog for the BBC’s Urdu service website under the pseudonym Gul Makai (Face like a flower) about the chaos of the time, including the fears of her classmates that their educations would be abruptly sopped.

Her efforts were recognised by the then prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, who awarded her the country’s first National Peace Award and a reward of about $US5300 after she missed out on winning the International Children’s Peace Prize for which she was nominated in 2011. Recently she had spoken of her desire to set up her own political party and a vocational institute for marginalised girls in her area.

The attack alarmed locals who said it raised doubts about government claims that the military has completely dismantled the militants’ operation in Swat.

“An attack on Malala in a highly secured area has sent a shiver down the spine of Swati people,” said Fazal Maula Zahid, a member of Swat Qaumi Jirga, a local anti-Taliban group working for peace in the region. “We are holding urgent meeting of our jirga [tribal assembly] to chalk out a future strategy. We demand of the government to arrest the attackers or the confidence of the people in the government will greatly be shaken.”

Although Pakistanis have grown used to the all-too-regular horrors of Taliban bombings and attacks around the country, some media figures said the attempt on Yousafzai’s life could be a “watershed”.

Murtaza Salangi, the director of Pakistan Radio, said people were “standing up to be counted as if this was their own daughter … I think it is a watershed moment because the outpouring of sympathy and support for this young girl is just unprecedented. She could be a rallying poster for people who think that extremism and terrorism is the biggest challenge, even an existential challenge, for this country.”

He said the mood of revulsion extended beyond just the “educated elite”, saying the switchboard at Radio Pakistan’s Peshawar studio had “lit up like Christmas lights” when phone lines were opened for people across the country to contact a phone-in programme.

Rana Jawad, Islamabad bureau chief of Geo, the country’s biggest news channel, compared footage played throughout the day of the unconscious Malala being loaded onto a helicopter to a 2009 clip showing a woman in Swat being beaten by the Taliban, which was constantly replayed and horrified the country.

“The reason the military was successful in its campaign against the Taliban in 2009 is that the whole nation was supporting them after they watched a young girl being beaten by a handful of militants,” he said. “Today we have seen the reaction of the people is one of outrage, revulsion and a sense of shame at what has happened to Pakistan.”

Although he noted none of the country’s religious conservative parties have yet condemned the attack, he said the Malala incident could “help the nation gel together in dismissing this mind set which attacked an innocent, harmless girl”.

The country’s supreme court on Tuesday also ordered an investigation into the alleged barter of seven girls to settle a blood feud in a remote district.

Guardian News & Media

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/outrage-as-girl-who-spoke-out-shot-in-the-head-20121010-27bya.html#ixzz28rOTxhCZ