family first
That's what she said
I can think of no better place than Mount Ainslie, if I were a Satanist in the ACT and I wanted to celebrate a Black Mass near Parliament. It’s not clear if it’s Crowley’s, LaVey’s, or some other kind of ritual, but then if you’re in Canberra, I suppose, you take what quasi-gnostic rituals you can get.
Catch the Fire Ministries pastor Daniel Nalliah has organised a “prayer offensive” to combat evil forces including witchcraft, homosexuality and abortion.
The discovery of a “black mass altar” at Mount Ainslie in Canberra by a group of school students had inspired him to organise a prayer gathering at the area on Saturday.
“The type of altar discovered on Mount Ainslie pointed to a black mass and the work of dark forces wanting to cast spells on Australia and federal parliament,” Mr Nalliah said.
That’s… what she said.
Fiscal Chips
English spelling has a horrible, intractably broken, historically perverse system of spelling. We all know it. The American know-it-all Benjamin Franklin knew it.
Goodness knows my spelling isn’t always perfect, and I can’t fault Senator Fielding for spelling “fiscal” wrong:
Recently, Senator Fielding has frequently mispronounced “fiscal policy” as “physical policy”. Speaking to journalists this morning he was questioned about the mispronunciation.
“I’ll make it quite clear: fiscal, F-I-S-K-A-L,” he spelt.
It’s one of those words that probably is set for ESL students as anti-malapropism spelling practice exactly because of the easiness of confusion. Physical/fiscal; he knows what he meant, and so do we.
Being unable to spell without error in front of a media pack, like a seal or an awkward, embarrassed North American child, is not a skill that should be expected of our representatives. It’s quite a different thing to be a bad speller, which is nothing discreditable, as to be an unskilled, confused, lazy thinker and a terrible, terrible political tactician, which is something to be regretted in a minor party Senator. A bit of dignity wouldn’t go astray either.
