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.

It seems as though Bernard Tomic cheated in his match against Alexandr Dolgopolov the other night.

When interviewed, he showed no remorse.

He is a young man. There should be somebody guiding him.

Perhaps with his great talent etc., winning has become too much of a priority with him.

* * *

We can all understand to some extent how tempting it was for him to do what he did.

We all have temptations.

What should BT do now?

First, he should go to confession.

Then do whatever the priest prescribes for him as penance.

If he is told to withdraw from the tournament, he should do so without complaint or comment.

* * *

Professional sport is responsible for so much bad human behaviour.

For example: gambling, drug use, self-absorption by the players.

Obsession with passive and trivial pursuits by spectators and TV watchers, plus more gambling.

Can we weed professional sport out of our society?

Not easy.

One at a time we can, as individuals, stop taking any interest in it.

That will be a start.

Federal MP, Andrew Wilkie, threatens to stop supporting the Gillard government if they don’t legislate poker machine reform.

He wants to compel gamblers using high-intensity machines (which accept $10 bets) to pre-commit to a limit on their losses before they start playing.

When their loss reaches the cap, the machine will lock them out.

Low intensity machines (accepting $1 bets only) would not be capped.

But the Gillard no longer needs Mr Wilkie’s vote like before, and thinks there is little to lose by double-crossing him.

* * *

On Australia’s 200,000 high intensity poker machines, gamblers routinely lose about $1200 per hour.

Gamblers on low-intensity machines lose “only” $120 per hour.

Which is no good, either.

For many Aussie battlers, $120 is big money. Lose that much and the cash earmarked for paying bills and feeding the family is gone.

All poker machines should be phased out.

Clubs that cannot survive without poker machines should not survive.

The Church should preach that gambling is greed — incompatible with love for God and his vulnerable children.

Canada’s Liberal Party has voted to legalise marijuana if and when they get into power.

Their policy is that legalisation will “ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution and use, while enacting strict penalties for illegal trafficking, etc.”

An unrealistic policy, rivalling the naivety of Australia’s Greens Party.

* * *

We have had, for years, scientific proof that marijuana has serious mental health risks

Marijuana is known to trigger psychosis in some people and makes any pre-existing mental illness worse.

Marijuana users with a family history of mental illness are the ones most likely to develop schizophrenia.

* * *

Yet there are still paid “experts” in the drugs field who espouse what they call “harm-minimisation”.

Which, in English, means tolerating the use of addictive and dangerous drugs and hoping nothing bad will happen.

Such a slack attitude will seem to future generations to rank alongside those tame “experts” of the past, who used to make statements suggesting that cigarettes were not a health hazard.

A national survey has found that Australians consider Australia Day the most significant day in the calendar. (AAP, 12 January 2012)

More than Anzac Day.

More than Christmas Day.

It is certainly being boosted by the political and media would-be opinion-controllers.

Municipal Councils are all hosting community breakfasts, sporting events etc., trying to beat up some interest.

Our Australian Aborigines are given at least a token mention in the publicity.

* * *

Australia Day commemorates the fact that on January 26, 1788, the “First Fleet” of European colonisers landed at Sydney Cove.

From that day on it became progressively more difficult for Aborigines to maintain their culture and way of life.

Since the 150^th anniversary of the First Fleet’s landing in 1938, some at least of the Aboriginal community, have taken to referring to January 26 as “Invasion Day and “a day of mourning and protest”.

It’s an unresolved problem.

The Christian gospel could be the factor that truly “reconciles” invaders and the invaded groups inhabiting Australia.

Generosity and fairness shown by the whites — and forgiveness and good living by the blacks – those are all it would take.

Grandstanding and slogan-quoting will not be enough.