There was a state memorial service for Jimmy Little yesterday at the Sydney Opera House.

I never heard a bad word said about him.

Jimmy became famous in the 1960s – especially for his song “Royal Telephone”.

Not the kind of song that could become a number one in modern times?

Or is that wrong?

Many people today, as in the past, might tell you how its words are true in their experience.

The words were straightforward enough:

* * *

Telephone to glory, oh, what joy divine!
I can feel the current moving on the line,
Built by God the Father for His loved and own,
We may talk to Jesus through this royal telephone.

Central’s never “busy,” always on the line;
You may hear from heaven almost any time;
It’s a royal service, free for one and all;
When you get in trouble, give this royal line a call.

There will be no charges, telephone is free,
It was built for service, just for you and me;
There will be no waiting on this royal line,
Telephone to glory always answers just in time.

* * *

If God answers prayer, it’s probably important that we don’t try to do all the talking.

A big part of prayer is simply spending time in silence . . . .

and letting the thought of God . . . .

and the thoughts of God . . . .

take over your mind.

Yet another teenage boy killed in a surf carnival at Kurrawa.

The third in recent years.

But organisers plan not to cancel the rest of the championship — body found today, business almost as usual tomorrow.

One barrister wants surf carnival officials to face criminal charges for not enforceing the use of high-visibilty flotation vests as recommended by the Coroner after a previous similar death.

But organisers give the excuse that the measure is “years away” because first “all options had to be tested”.

With vests in use, injured or unconscious competitors will float  —visible and able to be rescued.

With no vest, an injured competitor goes under the water, is invisible, and dies.

To allow participation in such events without vests is like sending workers onto building sites without safety helmets and boots.

We Australians need to re-evaluate the place of competitive sport in our lives.

It is currently a form of idolatry — too often spiritually and/or bodily fatal.

Andrew Wilkie MP isn’t happy about PM Gillard reneging re introducing mandatory pre-commitment on high-intensity poker machines, as she promised.

The Gillard’s  now proposes a “trial” of pre-commitment in Canberra to assess its value to problem gamblers.

She even ascends to the high moral ground — denouncing Wilkie as a guilty blocker of the ALP’s “reform”.

* * *

Why Canberra anyway?

Isn’t Canberra full of overpaid/underworked white collar types?

Those least able afford to problem-gamble are the working poor and pensioners found far from Canberra – e.g. in state capital non-leafy suburbs.

The Canberra trial will be dressed up so as to somehow seem to justify watering-down Wilkie’s proposals.

Making gambling look good . . .

* * *

The Labor party runs 400-odd poker machines in its Canberra Clubs, netting $600,000 a year . . . .

The Church? Nobody home there either. The Catholic community famously relies on gambling to fund numerous activities.

All gambling is problem gambling – especially if you WIN.

A winner takes something valuable from somebody else, giving nothing in return.

That is treating the other person as a thing.

As an idiot.

If you treat people like that, YOU have a problem.

A bill was introduced into Australia’s Federal Parliament yesterday to alter computer games classifications.

At present the highest rating is MA15+.

If a game doesn’t qualify for MA15+, it is “refused classification”, and cannot be legally sold.

The new laws will introduce a R18+ rating for games that have hitherto been refused classification.

What kind of games are currently refused classification?

Typical is “Mortal Kombat” — which includes over 60 fatalities, with explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation and disembowelment . . . .

Mortal Kombat is now going to be watched by children of all ages.

Why?

Because ratings, apart from the “refused classification” rating, are a joke — and incapable of being enforced.

Anyway, that is my opinion.

* * *

Supposing Mortal Kombat was made 18+ and WAS indeed watched only by people 18 and over . . . .

Would we have achieved something?

Is there something about Mortal Kombat making it important that adults be able to access it?

Our society is very violent.

Violence starts in the human mind.

Many minds are (despite being 18 or more years old) immature and easily desensitised to violence.

Whitney Houston passed away on Saturday.

The Guinness Book of Records called her the most awarded female entertainer ever.

She sold 170 million albums, singles and videos.

But was her life happy?

She became addicted to drugs.

Her attempted comebacks were scorned by the very fans whose idolising had induced her to become what she became.

Who loved Whitney Houston for herself?

Did she end up with nowhere to turn?

We must pray for Whitney Houston’s soul.

* * *

Our culture of creating “celebrities” — and thus rendering them incapable of coping with real life — is cruel.

Also hypocritical . . . .

We know well that the worst sin of all is pride.

How impossible humility must be when people scream whenever you walk onstage etc.

* * *

If your child has the skills to become an “elite” performer at anything – especially music or sport – what a responsibility!

Teach that child, above anything else, to love and fear God.

To strive after perfection – perfect obedience, perfect truthfulness, perfect simplicity . . . .

And perfect detachment from desire for money, power and fame . . . .

There is more fuss made about Saint Valentine’s Day every year

More often just called Valentine’s Day — saints not being in fashion at the moment . . . .

Not with those who exploit the day as a money-making opportunity — selling flowers, selling chocolate, selling meals and booze in restaurants.

Stand by for media outpourings of all that is cheap, sensational and trivial.

Like what percentage of pet owners would rather spend Valentine’s evening with an animal than with a human “partner”

And what foods are “aphrodisiacs” and why.

* * *

Tradition says there was a real Saint Valentine,

A Catholic priest, clubbed almost to death, then beheaded, by Emperor Claudius, apparently on February 14, in about the year 270AD.

Claudius had ordered all Romans to worship the Roman pagan gods or be executed . . . .

* * *

So Saint Valentine’s Day isn’t necessarily just about money and romance.

A day, perhaps, to ask oneself whether one would be willing to die for one’s beliefs.

Is your loyalty to God sufficient that you will remain resolute in the face of persecution?