Meatloaf is a rich man.

Tens of millions of records sold.

Now 60-odd he can still charge $600,000 for singing(?) a few songs at the MCG before the AFL Grand Final.

He (and also the footballers who came on next) are first, foremost (and only) overpaid entertainers.

They were doing a job – keeping the Australian consumer-public from thinking.

* * *

Angry Anderson is another entertainer.

But at 60-odd, he is not just acquiring money by making loud noises.

He is trying to make people think. He has opinions and expresses them.

For example, “We have strict quarantine laws and it should be the same when it comes to cultures that do not want to integrate. We should be very careful about where certain Muslims come from and what they believe . . . If people come and live in any country and their way of life is so different they need their own special laws, then possibly they have to pick somewhere else to live.”

Mr Anderson also says the Carbon Tax will harm Australia’s workers and do little for the climate.

He wants to stand for Parliament representing the National Party.

Should they take him on? That is up to them.

* * *

On the subject of sport and thought . . . .

Did you notice how Novak Djokovic, on match point in the recent US Open Tennis grand final, after making a sign of the cross, bounced the ball 10 times, hit a serve and then a tremendous forehand which Nadal hardly saw – and it was all over.

I’ve seen Jelena Dokic cross herself at appropriate moments.

Likewise Matthew Hayden used to — in his younger days — I think somebody talked him out of it in later years.

The US Military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy no longer exists, since its formal repeal as from 20 September.

This policy was a compromise, introduced 17 years ago under President Clinton, regarding the potential problems of having homosexually-active persons in the military.

* the “Don’t Ask” part was an attempt at fairness to people with homosexual orientation – not asking them, during medical and psychological assessments of fitness to enlist, about their “sexuality”. Previously some had been rejected on those grounds.

* the “Don’t Tell” part was an understanding that homosexually-inclined members of the forces not speak about their inclinations — nor indulge in homosexual conduct — the penalty being discharge from the service.

* there were also implied “Don’t Pursue” and “Don’t Harass” guidelines: service personnel being investigated (pursued) re homosexuality only if their openness about it was blatant –and they were not to be subjected to persecution or violence (harassed) by other troops.

* * *

Polls suggest that probably a majority of Americans favour the repeal.

However Archbishop Broglio, head Catholic military chaplain, favoured retaining “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

The basic Catholic position remains, of course, the same.

Namely that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”

Presidential hopeful, Rick Perry, has written, “I respect their right to engage in the individual behaviour of their choosing, but they must respect the rights of millions of Americans who refuse to normalise their behaviour . . . Tolerance is a two-way street.”

If Perry perseveres with this stance — and if he becomes President — “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may well be reinstated.

Three days ago, Mark Harvey, head coach of Fremantle AFL football club, attended a breakfast at which the topic was his plans for next year’s attempt to win the flag.

Nobody said to him, before today is out you will be sacked.

But that is what happened.

Harvey still had a year to run on his contract.

Fremantle’s performance has been described variously as “treachery”, a “mercenary act” etc.

Harvey’s replacement, Ross Lyon – who the previous week had negotiated a 4-year contract with St Kilda — pretty much overnight ditching the Saints and knifing a fellow-coach in the back.

When questioned about this perceived lack of loyalty, Lyon said he wasn’t interested in “emotive terms”.

Mark Harvey’s comment?

He simply said, “That’s footy . . . .”

* * *

If loyalty is merely an “emotive term”, then we have become, literally, a race of psychopaths.

If Mark Harvey is right that “that’s footy . . . .”

Then “footy” is something we would be a lot better off without.

Unfortunately, most professional sport seems to be no better.

* * *

Once upon a time, Ron Clarke tripped and fell during the1500 metres final of the Australian National Athletic Championships preceding Melbourne’s 1956 Olympic Games.

Fellow runner, John Landy, stopped and doubled back to check that Clarke was OK.

Clarke got up and they both started running again.

Too late, of course — neither managed a place.

But the attitude of sportsmanship shown has won a place in the hearts and admiration of many Australians.

That was a different century and a different world.

Samantha Stosur, Australia’s highest ranked tennis player, has scored some headlines.

“Aussie letting her emotions show” etc.

Part way through a vital game last Monday, she received a code violation for an “audible obscenity”.

She won the match.

Stosur makes no apology for her language.

Quote: “You don’t want to get a code violation or do something wrong, but if that’s what you have to do to release it and be able to play the next point well, then so be it.”

* * *

Her point is that winning matters more than curbing your tongue.

Most people would agree.

But most people would be wrong.

Being good at hitting a ball hardly matters at all.

Self-control and setting a good example matter very much.

* * *

The newspapers go on to say that “New Yorkers have embraced Stosur . . . .”

And that, “The Australian credited the rowdy crowds at Flushing Meadows for her new-found aggression on court.”

The worst thing would be for Sam Stosur to cultivate a new “image” and become like so many other badly behaved celebrities.

On the whole, Stosur has a pretty good record for composing herself during matches.

Let’s hope she can stay that way.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a meeting with Dr Kerryn Phelps, medical writer for Womens Weekly magazine.

Dr Phelps was seeking to convince the PM and her party to support “same-sex marriage” – an issue to be discussed at the ALP national conference in December.

The PM says she is against “same-sex marriage” — and that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

The meeting was private and its outcome is unknown.

* * *

A petition to keep the current definition of marriage, as between one man and one woman, signed by  over 50,000 people, has been presented to the Senate.

It’s the largest petition tabled in the Senate in the lifetime of this, the 43rd parliament.

And last week, a rally was held at Parliament House, Canberra, attended by 1000 people, in support of traditional marriage.

One of the speakers was Bob Katter, Independent MP.

* * *

In his enthusiasm, Mr Katter said about same-sex marriage, “Truly this proposal deserves to be laughed at and ridiculed.”

He is on the right side of the debate, but that is not the way to talk.

Same-sex marriage is a serious matter.

The people wanting to participate in such “marriages” do not deserve ridicule.

They are not well.

They deserve sympathy.

They deserve encouragement to try to alter their lifestyle and — if possible — their orientation.

Ridiculing them will simply encourage them to portray themselves as normal people who are being made victims.

Victoria and David Beckham, husband and wife celebrities, famous for their careers as Spice Girl Posh and footballer respectively, had their fourth child, a daughter, Harper, on 10 July 2011.

Since which they have been unmercifully attacked by population-control lobbyists as “bad role models”.

Such progressives consider children as merely unwanted expenses in their own self-absorbed lives — and as sources of carbon dioxide, bad for the planet’s environment.

* * *

There is, however, another consideration.

With the US economy now come unstuck — having spent too much money invading distant nations and insisting on absurdly big houses, cars etc. — a vacuum is created in this world.

Favourites for becoming next top nation are the BRIC quartet: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

China has already shot itself in the foot with its one-child policy.

Today’s middle-aged Chinese will soon find there aren’t enough young workers to support them in their declining years.

The nation with the healthiest demographic pattern is India – with families more like the Beckhams.

But India has its own greed-related problems — potentially explosive contrasts between how rich and poor live.

60 percent of Indians depend on agriculture to survive — their income representing just 14 percent of the nation’s total income.

* * *

In a good world, would not typical married couples have lots of children . . . ?

A substantial percentage of the rest living celibate lives — devoting themselves to religion, health, education and welfare?

Greed is the universal enemy

Greed is the offspring of irreligion.

If this life is all there is, then why not go flat-out for fame, money and showing-off . . . .

Anybody getting in the way, just shove them aside.

Or kill them.

Many of today’s adults with tiny or non-existent families, are believers in euthanasia.

Their children, if any, are going to believe in it, too.