It’s often said – and probably true – that Australia has become more secular over the last couple of generations. Yet while the influence of Church Christianity may have waned – that doesn’t say much about Australians’ changing beliefs on social issues.

Scott Steel’s well-researched blog Pollytics.com carries a very informative article entitled: Our Changing Views on the Death Penalty.

Scott summaries the results of a recently-published opinion poll by Roy Morgan Research: Australians say penalty for murder should be Imprisonment (64%) rather than the Death Penalty (23%)

Changing views on the death penalty in Australia since 1947

Roy Morgan has been conducting the same poll within Australia since 1947. Scott has turned the results of polling over the last sixty years – presented in tabular form by Roy Morgan Research – into graphs that show the long term trends very clearly.

The results of more questions related to this topic – and other graphs displaying comparable trends – are available in the Pollytics.com article.

It’s a fascinating piece of research.

I have an antipathy to institutionalized murder and find these results a welcome indication that support for more humane polices continues to grow.

While our political elites have been seduced and cajoled into supporting the war mongering, liberty-restricting policies of Australia’s misguided ‘allies’, Australians as a whole are much less keen on violent solutions to complex problems.

Opponents of citizen-initiated referenda often cite the death penalty as an example of why putting more power in the hands of the public might lead to blood-thirsty, mob-rule type polices – ergo (the argument goes) it’s ‘safer’ to let politicians make the decisions at arms reach from the will of the general public.

These long-term data suggest it has been a false argument for quite some time.

Some people believe that every story churned out by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation newspapers is complete rubbish.

I think that’s unfair.

In the interests of demonstrating this blog is ‘fair and balanced‘, here’s a story from the Murdoch media that’s (a) interesting (b) well-written and (c) amusing.

The Armadillo Magnetic Dog Collar from Total-Tack.co,uk

See Polly the dog swallows 1000 magnets, computer mouse and gloves.

It also has a happy ending.

The only missing ingredient is a reason why the gourmand Blue Healer swallowed 1,000 magnets. I have a theory about that.

I bet Polly became attracted to dogs wearing magnetic collars.

Private Eye’s end of August front cover explains why, if our current crop of politicians don’t stop authorizing this monstrous war in Afghanistan, we’ll need replacements who will.

A view from the British Army's OPTIMISTS

I haven’t visited this blog myself for a while.

The long and short of it is that after a technical glitch broke my flow in early August, I ended up feeling like a holiday from blogging.

So I took a few weeks off.

One of the joys of solo blogging is there’s no-one to fire me for indolence. It’s the freedom to slack off. In a highly evolved society, this would probably be recognized as a human right.

Every day is holy

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent more time contributing to discussions on other websites. I’ve been quite active on independent Australian blogs such as Crikey and New Matilda. Both are serving a useful role, broadening the political debate in Australia, providing somewhat greater choice of material and opportunities for participation.

Judging by these two ‘alternative’ web media, a significant shift in consciousness is underway in terms of the key topics discussed on this website. But it’s a long slog. Here are a few of the recent articles on which I posted comments:

Articles on the Crikey website

• Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, the true story by Bob Ellis
• Costello’s ABC attacks should be addressed (Crikey Editorial)
• Warnings of a second economic shock wave by Richard Farmer
• No-one forced Grech to concoct an email by Bernard Keane
• Our parliament sabotages our future by Clive Hamilton

Articles on the New Matilda website

• Oil Talks, And The Dying Scapegoat Walks by Alex Mitchell
• Time For A Proper Debate On Afghan War by Lee Rhiannon
• Why The War On Heroin Is Poppycock by Gideon Warhaft
• Expect More Home-Grown Terrorism by Taimor Hazou
• Opposition’s Climate Policy Is A Weak Joke by Ben Eltham
• The War Britain Doesn’t Want by Alex Mitchell
• Our Terror Laws Are Being Tested by Nicholas Broadbent
• Actually, Rudd DOES Break Promises by Mark Diesendorf
• Is It Right To Speak Of A ‘Jewish Lobby’? by Larry Stillman