Monthly Archives: April 2015

Boycotting Indonesia over #Bali9 reeks of hypocrisy.

Last night two convicted Australian drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in Indonesia. In response to the executions two hashtags #BoycottBali and #BoycottIndonesia have started to gain traction by people opposed to the death penalty.

Although I don’t support the death penalty as a form of punishment I think it’s important to point out the hypocrisy of boycotting Indonesia over the death penalty while continuing to use services from the United Sates, which also has the death penalty in 32 states.

I have been asking people to boycott the United States by deleting their Facebook and Twitter accounts since both services are based in California, a death penalty state. However rather than having the integrity to uphold their imaginary position on the moral high ground the left make endless excuses for continuing to use United States based service providers.

There is no such thing as “Defacto Abolitionist” California still has the death penalty on its books a long with 31 other states. In fact the United States has executed 10 people this year already without any moral outcry from Australia. Therefore expressing outrage over the execution of two Australian criminals to the point of boycotting the executing country only to then refuse a boycott of the United States over the death of ten US criminals is to place a higher value on the life of an Australian Citizen then on the life of a US Citizen. 

The old “not as bad as” fallacy even makes an appearance from the left.

It’s true that the United States reserves the death penalty for more severe crimes, such as murder. However the Innocence Project shows us that the United States does occasionally put innocent people on death row. See: Innocence Project Cases

At least Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were guilty of the crime they were punished for. While their guilt doesn’t make the execution right neither does it make the Indonesian death penalty any better or worse than the US death penalty. If you’re going to boycott Indonesia for the death penalty then it stands to reason that you will also delete your Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts and refrain from using Google or watching Hollywood movies.

Unsurprisingly while the political left are happy to boycott Indonesia for the death penalty they will not boycott the United States because it causes them too much inconvenience. Some people only have principles so long as it’s not too hard.

Anti-vaxxers refuse to apologise for comparing vaccination to rape.

Last week I wrote about the Australian Vaccination Network repeating their comparison between vaccination and rape. Over the past week they have been been taken to task for it by the Australian media.

Sydney Morning Herald: Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network compares vaccines to rape.

News.com.au: Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network compares vaccines to rape in Facebook post.

9News: Anti-vax group slammed for comparing vaccines to rape.

Herald Sun: Opinion: Comparing vaccination to rape is ‘revolting’

Daily Mail UK: Anti-vaccination group slammed after they compare immunisation of children to rape before claiming their advert is ‘just honest’

The Guardian: Campaign comparing vaccination to rape ‘repulsive’, health minister says.

The Independent: Anti-vaccination group defends advert comparing immunising children to rape

Of course rather than apologising for making the post the AVN simply denies having made it.

This is clearly an outright lie because the image was posted by the user/pagename avn.living.wisdom and the post stating “We do not own the page it was posted on” is the same page that posted the offending article. You can’t claim not to own the page page/account that you are currently posting to. That would be like me writing a blog post to explain that I don’t own this website. It’s just in my name, and under my management.

Of course the lying and back peddling doesn’t end there. The lie has also been repeated by Meryl Dorey who despite no longer being the official president; is still pulling all the strings.

 

Seriously, if you’re going to claim not to own the page you could at least refrain from doing so under an administrator account on the same page. As for the claim “I agree that the image was very much in-your-face and should not have been posted here”. That’s a stark difference from a few years ago.

So what happened? In the past the anti-vaccination lobby would never have backed down in the face of a media shit storm. This time they go running for shelter and claim not to own their official Facebook page. They are of course no less vile than they were a few years ago, but their resolve seems to be severely weakened in the past year. This is surely I sign that we are gradually winning our campaign to prevent them from spreading fear, lies and hate onto the community.

Of course after five years (and a lawsuit) I’m not not in the least bit surprised that they have chosen to blame an anonymous individual who just happens to have administrator access, rather than simply apologise for making the post in the first place.

Anti-vaccine campaigners obsession with rape.

Back in 2011 MerylDorey, then president of the Australian Vaccination Network made her now infamous Facebook post likening vaccination to rape.

After being repeatedly condemned by the media and society in general it would be expected that even the most moronic half-wit would have learned their lesson about making such absurd comparisons. However anti-vaccination campaigners it seems are not quite as intelligent as moronic half-wits because even after years of condemnation they are still making such comments.

Just a few hours ago the Australian Vaccination Network made the comparison again. Because some people never learn.

 However, unlike fours year ago the AVN is now coming under fire from within.

Even confirmed anti-vaxxers don’t want anything to do with it.

With Facebook posts such as this the AVN is quickly alienating the few remaining friends it still has.

Anti-vaxxers co-ordinate Denial of Service Attack against Federal Government

If you’ve seen the news lately then you’ll know that the Abbot government has recently announced plans to strip anti-vaxxers of welfare payments for refusing to vaccinate their children.

Australian parents will lose thousands of dollars of childcare and welfare benefits if they refuse to vaccinate their kids.
The “no jab, no pay” plan, announced by the federal government today, has bipartisan support. Thousands of families could lose payments, with the government estimating about 39,000 children under seven have not received immunisation because their parents are vaccine objectors. But Social Service Minister Scott Morrison said it’s not fair for taxpayers to subsidise parents who choose not to immunise. –The Australian

Australian welfare payments have certain conditions that must be met before you can claim a hand out from the taxpayer. For example the Disability Support Pension is only available for people who have a disability. Student welfare payments, called AusStudy in Australia can only be claimed by people undertaking a “full-time study load” who do not earn money via paid employment. While people claiming the New Start job seekers allowance must be looking for work.

 

Other welfare payments such as The Family Tax Benefit part A and the Child Care Benefit. Also have requirements that need to be met before a person is eligible to claim the benefit. In this case it is a requirement to immunise your children to be eligible for payment. However there was a loophole that allowed parents who neglect to vaccinate their children to still claim welfare payments despite not meeting the eligibility requirements. However there was an exemption in place that allowed people to claim “Conscientious Objection” to vaccination that would allow them to claim welfare payments despite failing to meet the immunisation requirements.

 

For years, anti-vaxxers have claimed “Conscientious Objection” to life saving medicine in order to claim a welfare payment they do not meet the requirements for. This is welfare fraud, albeit a legal one. The government has now closed this loophole to prevent tax payers money being spent on people who wish to endanger the community.

Unsurprisingly the Australian Vaccination Network, an extremist anti-vaccination lobby group that is no stranger to committing criminal acts. Is now encouraging members to partake in a “Phone Jam” whereby they attempt to flood the phone lines of Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison.

The idea was first posted on No Vaccines Australia with the stated intention of clogging up the phone lines.

However attempting to “Clog up the phone lines” is a crime in Australia as it is in effect a Denial of Service Attack.

477.3  Unauthorised impairment of electronic communication

(1)  A person is guilty of an offence if:

(a)  the person causes any unauthorised impairment of electronic communication to or from a computer; and

(b)  the person knows that the impairment is unauthorised; and

(c)  one or both of the following applies:

(i)  the electronic communication is sent to or from the computer by means of a carriage service;

(ii)  the electronic communication is sent to or from a Commonwealth computer.

 

Penalty:  10 years imprisonment.

-Criminal Code Act 1995, Part 10.7—Computer offences, Australia

For some reason anti-vaxxers,especially The Australian Vaccination Network like to think they are above the law and free to engage in harassment and abuse as they see fit. So far the Australian Vaccination Network has tried the following (and rapidly growing) list of tactics.

 

This is only a small list of abhorrent or at the very least, questionable behaviour that I have documented on this site over the past 5 years. I know there is a significantly enormous amount of bad behaviour that I haven’t written about yet. Mainly because I haven’t had the time to write a whole encyclopaedia.