Strangely Perfect

Block ACTA and Stop ACTA! Truly, our freedoms are at stake.  While notionally an idea to prevent copyright theft, it’s real purpose opens the floodgates for any undemocratic organisation to walk over our freedoms (such as they are) for which our forefathers slugged their guts out.  Read this, then either; walk away (wondering in a [...]

In a weird co-incidence that I missed at the time, I’ve just found that the plans for the Auschwitz death camp were put on  display during my Austrian visit earlier this year.   This visit very soon prompted my outburst on the pontificating nutty bishop, Richard Williamson (see The Face of Evil from 20 Feb [...]

What in the name of German alternative rock group Falco are you doing here?” – about 4:50 Well, rock me Amadeus!” – about 5:38

Introduction This is a small investigation into mail lists and scammy companies.  Some companies are fine, but I always go by the adage to judge a man by the company he keeps.  This shows how lists spread far beyond their initial purpose when you sign up for something.  It also shows how the privacy policies [...]

Not being a frequent foreign traveller, my recent stop in Eisenstadt, Austria, at a 5 star hotel open my eyes a bit.  A peculiar quirk, for me, was the toilet, with a shelf, in the room’s en-suite bathroom.  I’ve since found that it’s called a “shelf toilet”, a German invention to ease the inspection of [...]

Bishop Richard Williamson says No Gas Cambers existed.. As time passes and memories of mass slaughter diminish, many people start to doubt that people could do such ghastly things to others.  They think, ‘can it really be true?  Surely not?’.  And so it is with the nutty Bishop. Don’t let his bumbling aristocratic ramblings fool [...]

Who Needs Friends like Rosenbaum? During my recent visit to Austria I picked up a little tit-bit from “The Rough Guide to Austria” about the composer Haydn who ‘lived‘ in the town of Eisenstadt where I was staying, for some years.  My sarcastic emphasis is because by all accounts, Haydn’s opinion of Eisenstadt and it’s [...]

There is a saying of the Buddhist monk Nichiren Daishonin, that Winter Always Turns to Spring Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra are as if in winter, but winter always turns to spring. Never, from ancient times on, has anyone heard or seen of winter turning back to autumn. Nor have we ever heard [...]

I’ve just been reading this fascinating book, Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism by a non-Buddhist, Richard Seager, who gives a really good, well-balanced investigation into Buddhism, the Soka Gakkai (SGI) and it’s meteoric rise in popularity under the inspirational personas of Makiguchi, Toda and Ikeda. Well you’d [...]

After the recent evacuative pleasure I had after eating several serious amounts of short-grain brown rice, I was reminded of something I saved to my hard drive a while ago that I got from the web. So I  thought I’d share the anally comic missive below with everyone.  I don’t claim it’s a work of [...]

It wasn’t Us! We’re Not the One’s Wot Dunnit! In the latest gaff from Austria regarding the bizarre incestuous happenings in Amstetten, the the BBC report that the Austrian Chancellor, no less, said that he, while speaking from Vienna, underlined that the “abominable events” were linked to one individual case. But I also quote, without [...]

Jillian has left on her first expedition of the year. This time it’s to Austria where she will be teaching English. Funnily enough, she went into various local bookshops to get a Rough Guide and a phrase book for the country – but there weren’t any. However, there were plenty for Australia, including a phrase [...]