The other day I visited an elderly couple.

They were watching television — a tennis match between Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova.

They wanted me to watch with them, so I did, for about ten minutes.

A few minutes can’t do much harm, I thought.

I don’t know if you’ve watched television lately.

I was amazed.

It was nothing like I remembered it – the screen perhaps ten times the size I had been used to — the clearness almost overpowering.

You could almost count the players’ hair follicles.

* * *

A persuasive, potent, compelling weapon — especially if directed at those who can’t or don’t read much.

Even the most appalling behaviour and ideas could be made to seem tolerable.

And viewers rendered even less likely to find the motivation to spend generous time with God.

* * *

How much more meaningful our lives could be if we found even small periods of time for silence and reflection . . . .

Would we not, then, experience what Saint Mary MacKillop described, “God’s presence seems to follow me everywhere and make everything I do, or wish to do, a prayer . . . .”

Something to think about.

Sing loudly.

Repeat the last line of each verse.

* * *

My dog is old now (fifteen years), his eyes are nearly blind.

Yet though his hips and joints are stiff, he doesn’t seem to mind.

He’s not in pain, he eats his food, he persecutes the cat;

So we’re still pleased to have him round, except for one sad fact . . . .

He drops bowel actions randomly, he does them anywhere,

In carport, rumpus room or lounge, no longer does he care.

The moment that the urge comes on, he does one on the spot;

He cares not, be the time or place appropriate or not . . . .

In this respect he’s something like young people and their ways;

Their habits with regard to sex and how it’s done today.

Like Dog, they don’t repress themselves, they do it anytime:

In couples, groups, same-sex or straight, without reason or rhyme . . . .

They spread embarrassing disease, it’s not mysterious.

The body fluids they love to share contain a lot of pus.

The germs they catch on Friday night from Fanny or from Dick,

They give to someone else next day — soon all their friends are sick . . . .

All kinds of sins God will forgive, including unwed sex.

He wants us to enjoy his love in this world and the next.

But first we must be penitent, abandoning our faults:

This is for all, both young and old, the only hope we’ve got . . . .

After last election Julia Gillard promised Independent MP, Mr Wilkie, that she would legislate for mandatory pre-commitment for high-intensity poker machines by 2014.

That was enough to buy his support in forming a government.

Did she ever intend to keep her promise?

Now she has got around to saying she isn’t going to do it.

* * *

The government party calls itself the ALP.

What does the “L” stand for?

Its policies for a couple of generations suggest that their loyalties are not for those who “Labor”.

Would it be more appropriate for the “L” to stand for “Liars”

Or perhaps the “L” might stand for “Leaned on”.

This time they have been leaned on by the Registered Clubs sector, who seem to have a lot of clout based on having a lot of money . . . .

Money taken from the pockets of vulnerable problem gamblers.

Is the alternative government any better?

It’s a worry that the title of the opposition party, the LCP, also sports an “L” . . . .

Britain’s Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice has recently ruled that there is no justification for prohibiting private abortion clinics from advertising their services on television.

Private abortion businesses will be permitted to advertise themselves using terms such as “post-conception advice services”, with the emphasis on how they can arrange ultrasound scans etc.

They will not be obliged to state that they have a financial interest in aborting the babies of those who come seeking “post-conception advice”.

* * *

The Committee requires that the adverts will be subject to a Code stipulating that such advertisements are not to be “harmful, offensive or misleading”.

Doesn’t everybody know that abortion is harmful to the baby?

And isn’t it also harmful to the whole society — in its cheapening of the sanctity of human life.

The small lives to be exterminated are children of God.

And therefore of infinite worth – a fact more important than the profit margins of Mary Stokes International etc.

Mr Rick Santorum is not favourite to win the American presidency — but it is not impossible.

Santorum hasn’t got as much money as the other candidates.

He does not have the blessing of the rich who own the media.

Western “democratic” nations are less demo-cratic than they are pluto-cratic.

The big money owns the media. The media own (or endeavour fairly successfully to own) the minds of the TV-watching punters/voters.

Anybody who presents himself in the public arena as a practising Catholic will be killed off by the journalists – that is what they being paid to do.

* * *

Journalists are far worse people than prostitutes.

To prostitute your body is not as immoral as to prostitute the Word.

Is Santorum mankind’s only hope?

If he gets elected, will they not simply kill him — like they killed that other Catholic president?

Santorum is a lot more Catholic than Kennedy ever was.