A Foreigner's Perspective

Now the voting is done, for better or for worse ... here's a look at what our esteemed politicians have put us through from a foreigners perspective.

Pope Francis To Call The International Space Station

In just under 30 minutes time at precisely midnight tonight, 26 October 2017 Pope Francis will place a call to the crew aboard the International Space Station.

Firstly however, a sinscere commitment to my readership: I will refrain from writing in a cynical manner. I will focus solely on the facts associated with this event. I will resist the temptation of including statements such as "Big Bloody Deal!" and "Who Cares A Tinker's Cus?" (as I have demonstrated by the absence of words even remotely similar in this post's title. Neither shall I make reference to a previous post (Hysterical Virgins Who Can't Keep Their Hands Off Of Our Children) or claims therein regarding the Catholic Church being an international criminal organisation protecting paedophiles, money launderers and drug traffickers. Nor shall I decry it's leadership as being a morally bankrupt, misogynistic and homophobic gerontocracy that is more the lover of poverty than of the poor.

This is not the first time that a pope has placed a call to the heavens in the only verifiable way available.

The former pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI (a.k.a. "The Panzer Cardinal") made the first call from the Vatican to the ISS in May of 2011 (before resigning later that year in what would have been a disgrace had the circumstances been made officially public). On that occasion the ISS was full to the brim with Astronauts and Cosmonauts (12 in total) as the Shuttle Endeavour STS was dropping off some the straggler crew members of Expedition 27 and 3 months worth of frozen TV dinners.

Above: The Official STS-134 Crew Portrait. Clockwise: NASA astronauts Mark Kelly (bottom center), commander; Gregory H. Johnson, pilot; Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency’s Roberto Vittori, all mission specialists. Image credit: NASA 

On that occasion the pope read from a pre-prepared 6 minutes statement, somewhat stiffly in english to the assembled crews and steered clear of any controversial subject matter (including his membership of the Hitler Youth and subsequent service in the Luftwaffe), sticking to topics that could be best categorised as small talk consisting primarily of bleedingly obvious observations and assorted statements around the central theme of what a great view you must all have up there.

Pope Francis will speak with European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli and three NASA astronauts: Randy Bresnik, Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba. As this Pope is renown for having a less militaristic formal disposition than his predecessor, Frank (as His Holiness is known around Rome after hours) is expected to be greatly more relaxed in his discourse with the all male selection of crew members on the receiving end of his jollity. Further adding to the anticipated relaxed nature of the call, this Pope is by comparison a man of science, admitting the veracity of the theory of evolution, accepting the big bang theory as being the best explanation for the cosmos that we currently have and even a publicly stated position supporting Pope John Paul II's shocking 1992 concession that the Church had "erred" 359 years previously in condemning Galileo Galilei' for his assertion that the Earth revolved around the Sun as being patently untrue and sentencing him to house arrest for the remaining 11 years of his life. Better late than never as Frank says.

Above: Galileo facing Pope Urban III in 1633. Galileo was put on trial for heresy contending the earth revolves around the sun. He was convicted and put on house arrest until his death in 1694.

There is a slim possibility that the female member of the crew and the Russian orthodox Cosmonauts aboard could float by provided the completion of station keeping duties permit however in reality this is not likely.

12 Months In The Big House

Not Calling Grandpa "Mz Thang!" Could Get You 12 Months In The Big House!

On Thursday, 28 September 2017 California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into state law that allows for the goaling of people that refuse to use the preferred gender pronouns of nursing home residents.

The new law states that those "willfully and repeatedly" refusing "to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” can be fined US$1000 (AUD $1274) and sentenced to up one year in prison.

The “LGBT Senior Bill Of Rights" also requires aged care facilities and nursing homes throughout the state to allow residents to use the bathroom of their choice. The bill’s author, state Sen. Scott Weiner, argues that religious views don’t hold weight in public areas.
“Everyone is entitled to their religious view,” Wiener said. “But when you enter the public space, when you are running an institution, you are in a workplace, you are in a civil setting, and you have to follow the law.”

In a statement publicly thanking Governor Brown for signing the bill, Wiener wrote “LGBT seniors built the modern LGBT community and led the fight for so many of the rights our community takes for granted today. It is our duty to make sure they can age with the dignity and respect they deserve.”.

So Californians will be thinking twice before deciding between his and hers when they next spy Grandpa making moves for the Max Factor!