scientology & nick xenu-phon

Comparing the 1996 and 2001 Australian Census:

  ------------------ --Females ---Males --Total
Aboriginal
 Traditional - ----------2480 ---2744 -----5224
 Agnosticism - ---------7354 ---10213 ---17567
 Atheism - -------------9219 ---15245 ---24464
 No religion -------- 1314735 -1542569 ---2857304
 Paganism - -----------6612 ----4020 ---10632
 Rastafarianism - -------167 -----899 ----1066 
 Satanism - ------------383 ----1415 ----1798
 Theosophy ----------- 965 -----662 -----1627
 Wiccan/Witchcraft - --6621- --2134 -----8755

 $cientology - ---------866 ----1166-   --2032

In the last census in 1996, $cientology had 1488 professed members, which was 0.01% of the population five years later, they have 2032 professed members, which is 0.01% of the population.

October 2003 - UPDATE: Australian Membership numbers collapsing!

Year - Number
1996 - 1488
2001 - 2032
2002 - 1027
2003 - 741

XENU

Senator Nicholas Xenophon

The Anderson Report is the colloquial name of the report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology, an official inquiry into the Church of Scientology conducted for the State of Victoria, Australia. It was written by Kevin Victor Anderson QC and published in 1965.

In 1983, there was a ruling by the High Court of Australia, in Church of the New Faith v. Commissioner Of Pay-roll Tax. The court ruled that the government of Victoria could not deny the Church the right to operate in Victoria under the legal status of "religion" for purposes of payroll taxes.

record companies - boo hiss

A PUSH by Australian record companies to make clubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes pay tens of millions of dollars more in fees to play their music has backfired. Businesses have decided to turn off tunes licensed by the record companies and play the music of artists that are not signed to major labels.

The scheme would have increased some license fees from around $500 to almost $36,000.

A Clubs Australia spokesman was unable to say how many central Victorian businesses would have been slugged with the drastic cost hike. “We’re talking about every restaurant, cafe and club being affected,” the spokesman said yesterday.  

The fee changes would have resulted in businesses such as the Bendigo Club, which staff said yesterday had a bistro capacity of about 50, paying $3075.80 instead of the usual $62.04.

Bendigo District RSL staff said their bistro had a capacity of about 120, which would have increased fees by about $8500.

Clubs Australia announced at its annual general meeting a new scheme that would allow clubs to bypass the license fee charged by record companies. Clubs Australia will set up a program to source and distribute the music of artists not signed to major record labels and who are consequently exempt from the restaurant tariff.

As part of the new scheme, local musicians will be given the opportunity to sell their music in clubs, while money earned from the sale of background music CDs will be used to establish a fund for talented Australian musicians.

[read more from the Addy..]

FXH says: Fair enough - but what about the UN-talented Australian musicians - and they are the majority.

my enemies enemies

From Salon:

Pope Benedict XVI has made some Anglicans an offer he thinks they can't refuse. The pope has opened his arms to welcome, en masse, Anglican and Episcopalian priests, bishops and even whole congregations into full communion with the Catholic Church -- so long as they disagree with Anglican decisions to accept women priests and gay bishops. The Anglican priests and bishops can even bring their wives and kids with them. [..read more..]

and from closer to home - well a tiny bit closer - WA. From WA Today:

Pope Benedict has shown himself to be the ultimate short term thinker. He has dealt with his putative partner, Anglicanism, the third largest church after Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, with such sleazy opportunism that he has killed off all hope for a more unified wing of the European higher churches.  
... 
What has he done? After decades of gentle negotiation and muted love calls between these two behemoths, he made a desperate grab for a fringe of Anglicanism – the bells and smell sector. He has offered a deal to the small number of Anglo Catholics to come within his Roman fold (who in Australia will bring no property or assets). As my wry wife observed, this will increase the average IQ of both Anglicanism and Catholicism.

Benedict has shown himself to be a naked empire builder whose friendship cannot be trusted. His avarice is palpable and reveals him to be untrustworthy.

subdudes

Like zydeco, soul, country, gospel, vocals, harmony, roots, slide guitar? 

Hey Juanita - wishing there was a band around these days like Little Feat to do Dixie Chicken and Fat Man in The Bath Tub?

Why not do what I do - pullout your copy of the subdudes Live At Last and play it loud.

Heres some inferior offerings of subdudes off youtube to give you a taste.

slim & jim

Listening to Jimmie Rodgers the other night I was struck by how much Slim Dusty was influenced by him. Much the same as you can hear Woody in early Bob.