Monday, April 2, 2007

Scotch cadets

I see in this morning's paper that there were three inicidents, including one in which a boy died of an allergic reaction to peanut butter, at a Scotch College cadet camp in the Wombat State Forest. If the current cadet corp is like my experience of 25 years or so ago, it's not surprising. Then, in a general well run school, the cadets had a crappy administrative culture. The culture of the army didn't fit schoolboys well. The scouts was a far superior organisation, which I discovered when I switched to it. And Scotch at Cowes was a good holiday. But my experience of the cadet camp at Tolmie (at the foot of Mt Buller) was of boys nearing hypothermia in leaking second world war ponchos while teachers, drank, played cards and played at being officers.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

ridiculous fast tracking JP for beatification

The catholic church makes a joke of itself with fast tracking John Paul II sainthood with a posthumous miracle. A nun (convincing?) prayed to him after his death and was cured! Pleeese. Makes the whole church seem shonky and political. Should the alarms bells have been rung (they probably were) when the usual five year waiting period was waived. Why was it waived? Well that's obvious. But what excuse was used? Soon every pope will become a saint automatically. Well it was good enough for him Benedict will instruct.