I must admit to finding this rather amusing.  I wonder if low-cut tops were also a requirement.

A rule that women applying for government jobs in central Hunan province had to show they had symmetrically shaped breasts sparked a public uproar last year and calls for stronger legal protection against job discrimination.

Hunan scrapped its requirement, but China still does not have clear-cut laws ruling out such hiring prejudices. | Link

A few years back when God created Heaven and Earth, his intelligent design also created this neat nether-world place called Limbo. Limbo is a Catholic God place where unbaptised babies and worthy pagans like Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and perhaps even a few Jews might end up when they die.

This month, 30 top theologians from around the world met at the Vatican to discuss, among other quandaries, the problem of what happens to babies who die without baptism.

…it remains an interesting relic, strangely relevant to what the Roman Catholic Church has been and what it wants to be. The theory of limbo bumps up against one of the most contentious issues for the church: abortion. If foetuses are human beings, what happens to their souls if they are aborted?

Ian Fisher | NYT | Link

Now, here is a country that sells itself as socially progressive and culturally rich. Yet it is an elitist and some might say selfish society that scorns the opinions of the world in order to maintain a rather tacky tradition — the seasonal killing of whales.

Norwegian whalers will be allowed to kill a total of 1,052 minke whales in 2006, an increase of 30%.

The quota was raised from 797 – already a record – after a unanimous vote in parliament, the government said.

BBC | Link

I read this poem and realised I also knew silence — I have heard it once or twice while meditating and it is poetry.

This Christmas we decided not to buy presents for anyone. What we decided to do was send a donation to a needy school in Varanasi, India. The school is run buy a woman called Rajan Kaur who has been working for many years giving hope to the untouchable caste children of the Varanasi region.

This is Rajan’s story, as told by a volunteer helper, Vanessa Turner, a religious studies student from the University of California Santa Barbara.

» Read the rest of this entry «

It seems strange to this simple Aussie soul that for a US president it’s okay to be responsible for the death of tens-of-thousands of people.  It’s okay to go to war based on a mountain of lies and misinformation.  It’s okay to condone (or be party to) a multitude of illegal acts while in office.  Just don’t let your secretary give you a blow-job.  That’s really bad shit.

George Bush is reported to have said in a TV address from the Oval Office:

I know that some of my decisions have led to terrible loss, and not one of those decisions has been taken lightly,” he said. “I know this war is controversial, yet being your president requires doing what I believe is right and accepting the consequences.”

The US President, George Bush, has been widely quoted today saying that responsibility for invading Iraq, based in part on faulty weapons intelligence, rested solely with him.

“It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong,” Bush said. “As president, I’m responsible for the decision to go into Iraq.”

I suppose that means Mr Bush, Mr Blair and Mr Howard that you and your cronies are also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people for no good reason. Clearly, it’s time for you all to go.