Diane

I don't think Abbott has any authority these days, so anything he says is just about self-promotion. Have a feeling that anything he comes out in favour of, Turnbull would be against on principle!

I'm also in Adelaide, and in the North East suburbs so not far from Mawson Lakes. Feel free to ask if there is anything I can help you with. I know a friend has a place in Fairview Park (probably about 15 mins from Mawson Lakes) that she is thinking of letting out short term to people just arriving - I've sent her a link to this thread so she may be in touch in case it suits you :smile:

I still use Amazon.com - still works out cheaper, even with the exchange rate!

Woodburners are good for times like this. Having one of those can be good in the cold weather with no power. Bigger bonus if no gas for cooking is to have one with a plate on the top to cook on.

Oh boy, YES! Ours has been worth its weight in gold this winter - with the added bonus that any time there is a storm, OH's eyes light up, thinking "firewood!"

My son and his mates, who usually play online team games, whilst sitting alone in their homes at their computers, were stumped with no power and no internet, so we invited them all round here instead and they sat in the rumpus room, playing board games by candlelight instead!

I charged my phone up sitting in the car outside and listening to the local ABC radio station, then spent the evening in front of the fire reading my Kindle.

this is how the park usually looks

this is how big the river usually is

This is how big it is this morning - no idea why the picture won't upload the right way up - must be the weight of all that water tipping it up!

The river opposite our house had a bit of a growth spurt overnight - but I think the locaal council probably wins a prize for "Sign Stating the Obvious"!

As someone else posted, just like a bit of English October weather really. At least it's stopped the locals saying "oh, but we need the rain"!

Where do you go with that then, I simply do not not know how to make any sense of such a high percentage having that view, I suppose you have to remember that the whites only policy ended officially 50 years ago, more troubling though is do people realise the different sects within Islam, the same as in Christianity and do people realise that not everyone with a brown skin is a muslim.

But then maybe it's not that surprising, if the same survey was done in the Muslim or Jewish communities I'm sure it would be more predjudiced but I would have thought in a much more secular society that this kind of prejudice would have been more eroded.

I'm pretty sure the survey only asked something like 1000 people - with a sample size so small it's easy to steer the results to show exactly what someone wants them to.

Reading this thread gives an insight in to how exactly the Hanson creature amassed 500,000 votes.

Depressing, isn't it? Whatever the downfalls of 'political correctness', at least it meant that people considered first whether what they were about to say would offend others - now it seems 'free speech' is just an excuse to spout offensive and hurtful stuff, without caring who is damaged by it, with the self-righteous justification that 'everyone is entitled to express their opinion'.

Also travelonline.com.au do packages. A lot of the coupon sites do accommodation packages, and you book your own flights, although some do include flights. Try looking at http://www.dealsextra.com.au/travel-deals

I've said before, I wonder who stands to gain from stirring up so much antagonism against a particular faith. I don't have any answers, but the fact that the owner of the main newspaper in France also makes his money from being an international Arms Dealer leads me to think he may have a vested interest in promoting unrest around the world.... Be interesting to know if Murdoch has any such monetary interests too...

Unfortunately the art of investigative journalism seems to be dying out, so we shall probably never know - but Follow The Money is usually a good start!

Heard on the news that somewhere there was a Taliban attack on a mosque that killed dozens of Muslims while they were praying. How sad it is that the media portray followers of this religion as perpetrators of terrorism and ignore the fact that more often or not they are just as much victims.

Did you organise the trip (and guides) yourself or was it through a travel agent? I presume you were travelling alone? Really enjoyed reading it, thanks for posting you tale of the Road Less Travelled :notworthy:

Not in some cultures. I am led believe it can be!

There is no point my debating with someone who holds such old fashioned ideas. I hope for your kids' sake that none of them are gay, they don't deserve to have to deal with such a dinosaur.

This type of thing is precisely why a plebiscite is a bad idea - it allows people such as you to vilify a whole group of people for something beyond their control, and reveal such a lack of knowledge. Perhaps you should consider the saying that 'it is better to remain silent and be thought ignorant, than speak and prove it beyond doubt".

Wanting more than one wife or wanting to marry an animal are lifestyle choices. Being gay is not a lifestyle choice.

What quest is that though? For everyone to be gay?

 

In a nutshell your issue then is the word 'marriage'. And I agree that it is symbolic and important as if you have gay marriage then you have full legitimacy of a relationship. So the 'some form of union' you might approve of would have to be a 2nd class style union to reassure you that gay people are not and cannot be equal to heterosexual people.

 

I expect that your views on this are likely to be fixed but your children will be much less likely to be concerned about limiting the rights of gay people and the generations that struggle with this will gradually die out. This ultimately is progress.

Brilliant answer.

I don't think there are any of the issues that Skani brought up.

They're used to be but these have all been dealt with.

As usual, you don't know what you are talking about.

As an example: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/gay-marriage/south-australia-refuses-to-recognise-marriage-of-uk-man-who-died-on-adelaide-honeymoon/news-story/457d283f1f0946b767f70602e0ec3442

Far better things to spend the money on...

Typical example of the moral superiority complex of the left, in other words, we think this is the right thing to do, so you should just do it.

If it's morally superior to expect the law to treat everyone equally, then I am proud to be morally superior.

By your own argument though, does that make you inferior, or just immoral?

Noe really. It is mostly symbolic.

To you maybe, but not to a huge group of people who deserve to be treated equally.

Perhaps what you fail to appreciate is that it is a position of the whole party.

The leader is there to represent the party not be a dictator.

That's why Julia put it to the vote in parliament, rather than coming up with some expensive time wasting delaying tactic - Turnbull is such a disappointment - weak, ineffective, and totally useless at his job.

That has been done before and defeated every time.

Last time under Julia Gillard who was a staunch opponent of same sex marriage.

How ironic that Turnbull is a supporter of Marriage Equality and yet he's too damn spineless to stand up to the fascists in his party and do it then. At least Julia did what she was paid to do.

"Not a serious social change".....To you maybe not, but it could well be to others.

To whom? and why?

So are you now saying if there is a vote and public do vote to your preference, that we do not do anything anyhow and leave things as is now?

No - they should hold a vote in parliament - as they do for everything else. Hopefully then it would pass and people could get married tomorrow if they so wished. And 4000 extra jobs would be created, $200 million would be saved, and THEY WOULD ACTUALLY BE DOING THE JOB THEY GET PAID FOR!

http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/whereyourmpstands/