Monthly Archives: January 2013

Letter to the new AVN President.

Those who have been following recent events will be aware that the AVN has now declared that it will cease publication of its magazine Living Wisdom.

However it is estimated that from 2010 onwards the AVN received approximately $340,000.00 for magazine subscriptions that were not fulfilled. Currently there are 14 issues of Living Wisdom that have been paid for by subscribers but never delivered.

Due to Ms Dorey’s attempts to obfuscate the organisations financial records it is difficult to tell exactly how much money was scammed collected from subscribers who didn’t receive all of the magazine issues they paid for.

Yesterday the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading released a document confirming that as of 16th January 2013 the Australian Vaccination Network has still not submitted their “Summary of Financial Affairs” for 2011.

 Click here for the full document.

So I thought I would write to the new President of the AVN, Mr Greg Beattie and ask if the Living Wisdom subscribers would be getting a refund on their subscriptions for the 14 outstanding issues, and when the AVN would be meeting its obligation to its 2011 financial statement to Fair Trading.

Download PDF Copy of this Letter

Those interested can write to the Australian Vaccination Network at: PO Box 177 Bangalow NSW 2479 and address the letter as either ‘President’ or ‘ATTN: Greg Beattie’ as Meryl Dorey is no longer in charge (supposedly).

Child abuse advocacy book pulled from shelves.

A “children’s book” intended to teach children to embrace deadly disease is being removed from sale.

AUSTRALIA’S largest online bookstore will no longer sell a book that promotes the “marvellous” benefits of measles. Measles is one of the top killers of children, but is easily preventable through vaccination, so deaths in Australia are rare.
News.com.au revealed this week that Bookworld was distributing Melanie’s Marvellous Measles, which falsely describes the deadly disease as something that will make children stronger. AUSTRALIA’S largest online bookstore will no longer sell a book that promotes the “marvellous” benefits of measles.Measles is one of the top killers of children, but is easily preventable through vaccination, so deaths in Australia are rare.News.com.au revealed this week that Bookworld was distributing Melanie’s Marvellous Measles, which falsely describes the deadly disease as something that will make children stronger. –News.com.au
The book is written by Stephanie Messenger a disease advocate who want children to be exposed to diseases that will kill them. I first mentioned her book briefly about a year ago, but now it looks like she is finally getting dragged into the public spotlight. I expect many members of the public will be shocked to learn that child abuse advocates like Messenger exist.
The anti-vaccination book, ‘Melanie’s Marvellous Measles,’ penned by Queensland health activist Stephanie Messenger, tells how the young girl catches measles. Melanie expresses concern to her mum that her friend Tina might also contract the potentially-fatal disease.
But her mother replies by saying ‘wise people think measles help strengthen the body, and makes it more mature’. Tina’s mum recommends melon and carrot juice will help make Melanie feel better. She also tells Tina it would be a ‘great idea’ if she caught measles from her friend. The Australian Medical Association warns that measles can still kill, and carrot juice won’t save you. “About one in 10,000 children will die because of encephalitis,” AMA President Steve Hambleton toldNews Limited. –Yahoo 7 News
Deliberately exposing children to measles is an especially cruel form of child abuse. Anyone caught following Stephanie Messenger’s advice should be reported to Child Protection.

Sport is a better culprit for violence than video games.

So it didn’t take long after the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings for the politicians to start blaming “Violent Video Games”. In the United States the blame game is in full swing:

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) has taken Congress’ first step in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre toward possibly regulating access to violent videogames.

Calls for gun control immediately followed the elementary-school shooting Friday, so it was only a matter of time before violent videogames became another target.

Rockefeller is proposing that the National Academy of Sciences study the relationship between real-world violence and virtual-world violence in videogames. Reading between the lines, the idea is to perhaps acquire conclusive fodder, if there is any, from this prestigious group of scientists that there is an association between the two. –Wired, Threat Level

Assholes like Rockefeller have been trying to pin the blame on video games for years. Because it’s a lot easier to demonise video games than it is to tackle the real problems of a society where school shooting have almost become a routine. 

If we’re going to look for something to blame then why not blame sports? It would make much more sense to blame the violence in society on competitive sports, after all sporting events, particularly team sports foster an “Us Vs Them” style of mentality amongst their supporters who even wear the colours and fly the banner of their favourite team.

Throughout the Middle Ages banner men flew the flags and coat of arms of the lords and kings to whom they owed their allegiance. The tradition of flying banners and flags can be seen throughout most of human history and modern day sport, or warfare is no exception.

In Australia sports spectators are quite passive, but in Britain and North America there have been numerous incidents of violence breaking out amongst supporters of opposing teams, including large scale riots. But no one seems to be willing to blame competitive sports for outbreaks of violence. Instead they choose video games as their preferred scapegoat despite the fact the violence and aggression is better linked to sport than it is to video games. Has there ever been a riot resulting from a round of Halo or Counter Strike? None that I know of.

Should we blame sports for the Sandy Hook School shooting?

No, that would be just as absurd as trying to blame video games. But if scumbag politicians want something to blame, then I think team sports are a much more likely culprit than any video game.