Funny how existing laws (which have handled democratic freedom of expression just fine for eons), have been “temporarily updated” with some new laws for World Youth Day in Sydney. The worrying part is that the government has decided that “being annoying to a Catholic pilgrim” will be an offense - so you can be arrested and fined $5,500 for pissing a pilgrim off.
WYD will be held at Randwick Race Course, and will result in many road closures and transport challenges – although those issues pale compared to making “annoyance” an offense.
I love the spirited response that is so typical of the Australian spirit. For example, these t-shirt slogans are big sellers in Sydney right now…
- You can fine me $5,500… But I still won’t believe in God
- WYD08: We close 300 roads so 300,000 can close their minds
- Good luck Pope – I’ve been waiting for a miracle at Randwick for years
- “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who wear t-shirts that cause annoyance or inconvenience…”
- I survived a Christian Brothers education
- Oh no, I stepped in Dogma
- Too many Christians, not enough lions – Randwick 2008
- annoying & inconvenient
- I’ve been touched by the Catholic Church, so where’s my $2 billion?
- World Youth Day: You can cross yourself, but not the city
There’s more creative genius at the Remo General Store. Looks like their user-generated t-shirts will be big sellers for WYD…
While it “appears” that eBay have backed down from their “PayPal only” position which I wrote about earlier), the Sydney Morning Herald writes today that all is not as it seems..
eBay is surreptitiously strong-arming its users into embracing PayPal despite publicly announcing it has shelved plans to block other payment methods.
Although eBay yesterday backed down on plans to lock out paying by money order, direct bank deposits and cheques, it has not rolled back a recent policy forcing all sellers to at least offer PayPal as one of the payment options.
Sellers are reporting that eBay is systematically deleting auction listings from sellers who state in their item descriptions that they “prefer” to be paid with non-PayPal methods, such as bank deposit.
