The article is very funny because the man is truly delusional.
“ “I was thinking that it was going to resonate with the world, with whoever, but man, people are strange out there,” he said.
Obviously, he owns no mirrors.
And he’s probably never noticed that people do not plot to assassinate your average guy on the street. They generally assassinate either the very good or the very bad. Apparently, it would never occurred to him to question himself about which kind of person Oldcharley was.
“Why am I making the statue? The same reason why Michelangelo did the Pietà, or Michelangelo did the David, or Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa."
What made me laugh was his comparing himself and his work to the greatest artists who ever lived. Truly delusional.
I don't have any sympathy for him. The public is forgetting about Kirk about as fast as they forgot about Limbaugh. Neither of them had any actual substance.
It’s not clear to me that he was even a MAGAt. Just a really, really, really, terrible, horrible, lousy, inept, (insert more similar words) judge of reality.
I’m not a bronze sculptor, and I don’t often do figurative work (2d or 3d) but I do have an art background and can be a competent critic.
It’s pretty good for a high schooler. It still has that uncanny valley feel, and I’ve said on Facebook, so did Mr. Kirk. It is pretty accurate in that sense. But it’s just ugly, an eyesore. And it sits very awkwardly, and absurdly.
No one needs to memorialize that man this way. Erika isn’t even that aggrieved he’s gone. He’s not the flashpoint the regime wanted when they murdered him. No one really cared that much. So, the artist can keep his pile of turd all to himself.
No surprises here. Of course the religious people in charge of writing the official question are going to make sure it's misleading enough to overstate their numbers. Lying for Jesus is baked into the whole thing.
Many people who are non-religious still are afraid to say so due to peer pressure from family and friends but I think society is reaching a tipping point and this is why the god botherers are so upset. They know the jig is up on their grifting and power scam.
And how many lie and say they practice a religion when they no longer believe? I often wonder how many of the few still in the pews, only go to be seen as religious without actually believing?
This is tangential, but I noticed it and was puzzled: Judaism is in the “other” category? I did read that less than .4% of the Australian population identify as Jewish, but that’s according to the Census. Some Jewish people there are survivors (or their descendants) of World War II death camps and understandably prefer to leave the question unanswered. It still seems strange to me that it’s not specifically listed.
“We’ve long known that the leading nature of the Census religion question significantly inflates the data in favour of religion and undercounts the non-religious population,” he said.
Okay, bud, I have to ask: why do you continue to do that? Considering the growth of the non-religious not just in Australia or the United States but worldwide, I would think you would want to structure your survey to be more evenhanded. The very fact that Hemant's blog is bringing up this point is an indicator of the improper structure of the current survey.
Side note: I fully expect the results of this survey to have Christians in Australia screaming bloody murder. Doubtless they'll say that the survey misrepresents the number of Aussie Christians, and of course that they are therefore being persecuted.
For me and I'm sure the rest of us, this is great news. I look forward to updates on this survey when the data is compiled for 2026 and next year in 2027.
"On the Beach", a 1957 novel by Nevil Shute, portrays Australia as the last outpost of human civilization after a nuclear exchange has wiped out all life above the equator. But the fallout is gradually drifting southward, and Australia's own days as a safe haven are numbered. The novel was made into a 1963 movie starring Gregory Peck as the captain of an American submarine stranded there. I guess both the book and movie made a deep impression on me at the time, because they're the first things I think of whenever the subject of Australia comes up.
In the current context, it's good to think that at least the Aussies aren't dominated by religious crazies who are determined to bring on the End of Days by punching their own Big Red Button. My useless prayers are that both Trump and Vance never ride together in the same vehicle, because the next guy in line for control over our own BRB is Holy Mike Johnson, who would undoubtedly see the Hand of God in his unlikely ascension to the role of Apocalyptic Trigger.
So, if they can’t get the right responses with the new phrasing they could do the list and the write-in block under yes.
Does the person have religion?
No
Yes
Christian
Hindu
Islam
Jewish
Other
Write in
Still has the prompts for the specific religions and a write in, but it doesn’t assume religiosity. Come on people, think! This took me 3 seconds to come up with.
The reason for the census to not change was really just the Catholic and religious pressure and bribery. They don’t want people to know that they can be non-religious and not be a pariah. Because they don’t care about sincerity, only obedience. And they don’t care how they get it either.
I sat across the table from my in-laws and asked them whether or not they thought a person needed organized religion in order to be a good person and they said, “yes absolutely” with seriousness in their eyes. I even followed it up with a, really?? Funny as they are very aware I am not religious 😂
Of course they do, that’s why they don’t get upset over baptizing infants and small children. They just assume the brainwashing will stick thirty years down the road.
Ask me what cup of coffee I’m on and see if you can get an honest answer for me. The answer is I just took my first sip and then I had to read about religion being dishonest. You could knock me over with a Day o’ Glory!
I learned a couple of things when I was a boy learning how to think. The answer you get to a question is only as good as the question. And to ask a good question, you must already know most of the answer. Unless you don’t want to know the answer or don’t really want to ask the question. That’s where sociology and psychology sneak in.
The Catholic bishops knew it when they said that changing the question even slightly would cause “unwarranted complication for people who wish to record their religion.” There’s no reason to think so. People who actually are Catholic would say they are Catholic. People who are culturally catholic might have a few more issues deciding whether they are cultural or religious Catholics. But that would be no different than the current situation .
When the television program “bewitched“ was running, one of the guys playing Darren died or quit or something. I don’t really remember, because it was so far back, long before there was hair. The producers said they were concerned about causing “confusion for the viewers“ if they announced or explained something or other. Even in my early teen years, that made no sense. It assumed that the viewers could not understand that people die or change jobs, and that people actually believe that Darren and Samantha were real people. “Lookit, Becky Sue! Samantha done got herself a new husband. Now I’ll never understand the plot.’
Nonsense.
The problem with the Census Bureau not wanting to change things to keep comparisons of data “standardized“ was a also quite a little less than ingenuous. If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to keep on getting what you always got. And that would be a less honest and correct answer. they would have found out that they were not asking a very good question. in fact, the better question shows that the answer they hoped to get was not accurate.
So why wouldn’t they want to ask that question, and why would they be unable to explain, should anyone care enough to ask, that their previous question was not quite accurate? The only people that would actually care already know most of the answer.
This type of polling (with an obvious agenda) is worded in a way to make things seem more controversial than they are. For example:
Polling does show that a large majority of Americans—often around 80%—agree that decisions regarding abortion should remain strictly between a patient and their doctor, without the government or politicians involved.
You wouldn’t know that because often this is not how the question is worded.
It is not only down under… I made my way down US 27 to the grocery in Bainbridge, GA yesterday AM. It happened to be at 11:00. I passed 4 churches. Not a one had anywhere near enough cars to have filled the pews. Only 7 at the Pentecostal. 6 at the Baptist Church on my road. 11 at the ‘Christian Faith Church’. Open Arms Ministries was the winner with 15. Even in the Bible Belt, people are discovering that god doesn’t seem to care whether you go or not.
People forget that the word 'church' doesn't really refer to a structure. Church is a group of like-minded people. Under that definition, FA is a church.
Neither was I. We’re not a religion. I was merely trying to show that the original meaning of the word church was a group of people and not a building. That’s what my link showed (or attempted to until it was censored).
The only thing I can think of is that said bot read my link and somehow decided that it was proselytizing, which it was most definitely not.
"Despite undercounting the number of non-religious Australians, there's still reason to believe Christians will be outnumbered when the results are finally released in 2027."
And YHVH is helpless to stop the change in the Land Down Under. Puny god.
OT:
Lol
New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/20/sculptor-charlie-kirk-statue-new-york
The article is very funny because the man is truly delusional.
“ “I was thinking that it was going to resonate with the world, with whoever, but man, people are strange out there,” he said.
Obviously, he owns no mirrors.
And he’s probably never noticed that people do not plot to assassinate your average guy on the street. They generally assassinate either the very good or the very bad. Apparently, it would never occurred to him to question himself about which kind of person Oldcharley was.
“Why am I making the statue? The same reason why Michelangelo did the Pietà, or Michelangelo did the David, or Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa."
What made me laugh was his comparing himself and his work to the greatest artists who ever lived. Truly delusional.
He can't even compare himself to Michelangelo and Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
And his subject is no Mona Lisa or David, either.
Moaning Charlie?
Just leave it out. I'm sure the birds would flock to it (if you know what I mean).
Should have been a fountain, with a spout in the neck.
Ouch 😂
Make the fountain shoot red wine.
That’ll bring people to visit it.
Like this? 🖕
I don't have any sympathy for him. The public is forgetting about Kirk about as fast as they forgot about Limbaugh. Neither of them had any actual substance.
Hearing that a magat got soaked financially is always a good time. That's 100k that won't go to support some other form of fkkkery.
It’s not clear to me that he was even a MAGAt. Just a really, really, really, terrible, horrible, lousy, inept, (insert more similar words) judge of reality.
Of course, the Venn diagram between MAGAts and hortible judges of reality does have a lot of overlap.
One of them is inside the other.
I’m not a bronze sculptor, and I don’t often do figurative work (2d or 3d) but I do have an art background and can be a competent critic.
It’s pretty good for a high schooler. It still has that uncanny valley feel, and I’ve said on Facebook, so did Mr. Kirk. It is pretty accurate in that sense. But it’s just ugly, an eyesore. And it sits very awkwardly, and absurdly.
No one needs to memorialize that man this way. Erika isn’t even that aggrieved he’s gone. He’s not the flashpoint the regime wanted when they murdered him. No one really cared that much. So, the artist can keep his pile of turd all to himself.
New Yorkers will give it a nice welcome.
We ducked a bullet because he didn’t. “They” were grooming him for higher office.
They absolutely were, just like Josh Duggar.
I'll give him $10, might be able to talk me up to $20.
"The current average scrap bronze price in the U.S. ranges from about $3.82 to $4.15 per pound" - Copilot
Even pigeons need a place to shit.
Haw! Haw!
Don't let Deathsantis hear about it, they want to plunk one of those down in New College.
“𝑊𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑛-𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛."
No surprises here. Of course the religious people in charge of writing the official question are going to make sure it's misleading enough to overstate their numbers. Lying for Jesus is baked into the whole thing.
Many people who are non-religious still are afraid to say so due to peer pressure from family and friends but I think society is reaching a tipping point and this is why the god botherers are so upset. They know the jig is up on their grifting and power scam.
How many are undercounted because they are hiding their lack of belief from the parents who are filling out the form?
And how many lie and say they practice a religion when they no longer believe? I often wonder how many of the few still in the pews, only go to be seen as religious without actually believing?
lol “God botherers”!
You know the ones who tie god's attention up, with their requests for their football team to win./s
This is tangential, but I noticed it and was puzzled: Judaism is in the “other” category? I did read that less than .4% of the Australian population identify as Jewish, but that’s according to the Census. Some Jewish people there are survivors (or their descendants) of World War II death camps and understandably prefer to leave the question unanswered. It still seems strange to me that it’s not specifically listed.
Damned fine point. Thanks for bringing it! 👍
“We’ve long known that the leading nature of the Census religion question significantly inflates the data in favour of religion and undercounts the non-religious population,” he said.
Okay, bud, I have to ask: why do you continue to do that? Considering the growth of the non-religious not just in Australia or the United States but worldwide, I would think you would want to structure your survey to be more evenhanded. The very fact that Hemant's blog is bringing up this point is an indicator of the improper structure of the current survey.
Side note: I fully expect the results of this survey to have Christians in Australia screaming bloody murder. Doubtless they'll say that the survey misrepresents the number of Aussie Christians, and of course that they are therefore being persecuted.
For me and I'm sure the rest of us, this is great news. I look forward to updates on this survey when the data is compiled for 2026 and next year in 2027.
"On the Beach", a 1957 novel by Nevil Shute, portrays Australia as the last outpost of human civilization after a nuclear exchange has wiped out all life above the equator. But the fallout is gradually drifting southward, and Australia's own days as a safe haven are numbered. The novel was made into a 1963 movie starring Gregory Peck as the captain of an American submarine stranded there. I guess both the book and movie made a deep impression on me at the time, because they're the first things I think of whenever the subject of Australia comes up.
In the current context, it's good to think that at least the Aussies aren't dominated by religious crazies who are determined to bring on the End of Days by punching their own Big Red Button. My useless prayers are that both Trump and Vance never ride together in the same vehicle, because the next guy in line for control over our own BRB is Holy Mike Johnson, who would undoubtedly see the Hand of God in his unlikely ascension to the role of Apocalyptic Trigger.
Australia exports their crazies. It's how we were "blessed" with Ken Ham. *rolls eyes*
Too bad the Hand of God doesn't do something about the porn use that the Johnsons (heh heh) monitor each other on.
You're talking about the Hand of God and porn?
And Rupert Murdoch.
Not Australia, but good nonetheless.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/#storyline
So, if they can’t get the right responses with the new phrasing they could do the list and the write-in block under yes.
Does the person have religion?
No
Yes
Christian
Hindu
Islam
Jewish
Other
Write in
Still has the prompts for the specific religions and a write in, but it doesn’t assume religiosity. Come on people, think! This took me 3 seconds to come up with.
The reason for the census to not change was really just the Catholic and religious pressure and bribery. They don’t want people to know that they can be non-religious and not be a pariah. Because they don’t care about sincerity, only obedience. And they don’t care how they get it either.
I sat across the table from my in-laws and asked them whether or not they thought a person needed organized religion in order to be a good person and they said, “yes absolutely” with seriousness in their eyes. I even followed it up with a, really?? Funny as they are very aware I am not religious 😂
Linda, you're bad, b-b-bad to the bone.
Also, my mother in-law asked me why my parents didn’t just baptize me to “be safe”. I think they think I’m “interesting” at best ;)
So they think you can "fool" their God by getting dunked in water without really believing in Him? Doesn't sound very omniscient to me.
Of course they do, that’s why they don’t get upset over baptizing infants and small children. They just assume the brainwashing will stick thirty years down the road.
Gamblers, are they? See Pascal's wager. ; )
😂
Ask me what cup of coffee I’m on and see if you can get an honest answer for me. The answer is I just took my first sip and then I had to read about religion being dishonest. You could knock me over with a Day o’ Glory!
I learned a couple of things when I was a boy learning how to think. The answer you get to a question is only as good as the question. And to ask a good question, you must already know most of the answer. Unless you don’t want to know the answer or don’t really want to ask the question. That’s where sociology and psychology sneak in.
The Catholic bishops knew it when they said that changing the question even slightly would cause “unwarranted complication for people who wish to record their religion.” There’s no reason to think so. People who actually are Catholic would say they are Catholic. People who are culturally catholic might have a few more issues deciding whether they are cultural or religious Catholics. But that would be no different than the current situation .
When the television program “bewitched“ was running, one of the guys playing Darren died or quit or something. I don’t really remember, because it was so far back, long before there was hair. The producers said they were concerned about causing “confusion for the viewers“ if they announced or explained something or other. Even in my early teen years, that made no sense. It assumed that the viewers could not understand that people die or change jobs, and that people actually believe that Darren and Samantha were real people. “Lookit, Becky Sue! Samantha done got herself a new husband. Now I’ll never understand the plot.’
Nonsense.
The problem with the Census Bureau not wanting to change things to keep comparisons of data “standardized“ was a also quite a little less than ingenuous. If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to keep on getting what you always got. And that would be a less honest and correct answer. they would have found out that they were not asking a very good question. in fact, the better question shows that the answer they hoped to get was not accurate.
So why wouldn’t they want to ask that question, and why would they be unable to explain, should anyone care enough to ask, that their previous question was not quite accurate? The only people that would actually care already know most of the answer.
What threw me was when Bewitched went to color.
All it took was a little magic.
And a nose-wiggle!
"The answer you get to a question is only as good as the question. And to ask a good question, you must already know most of the answer."
This!!
Did you notice Ross Gellar's two wives?
Or in the show '𝑇𝑖𝑙 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ the daughter was played by a different actress each season.
I watched only a few episodes of friends. I haven’t had broadcast TV in something like 10 years, maybe more.
This type of polling (with an obvious agenda) is worded in a way to make things seem more controversial than they are. For example:
Polling does show that a large majority of Americans—often around 80%—agree that decisions regarding abortion should remain strictly between a patient and their doctor, without the government or politicians involved.
You wouldn’t know that because often this is not how the question is worded.
Pretty much never, they word as "when, should the government have their say?" Not Should they.
It is not only down under… I made my way down US 27 to the grocery in Bainbridge, GA yesterday AM. It happened to be at 11:00. I passed 4 churches. Not a one had anywhere near enough cars to have filled the pews. Only 7 at the Pentecostal. 6 at the Baptist Church on my road. 11 at the ‘Christian Faith Church’. Open Arms Ministries was the winner with 15. Even in the Bible Belt, people are discovering that god doesn’t seem to care whether you go or not.
And Open Arms Ministries was populated mainly by confused 2nd Amendment activists.
And after all, isn't their god everywhere?
People forget that the word 'church' doesn't really refer to a structure. Church is a group of like-minded people. Under that definition, FA is a church.
I believe in holy St. Hemant of the Blessed Keyboard!
And in Matthew, it says to go alone into the closet when you pray… not out on the street corner like the Pharisees.
That's because it's easier for God to hear you when you're not being drowned out by all that traffic noise.
YHVH really hates those damned iron chariots.
church
a building for public Christian worship.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/church
FA is a church like bald is a hair color.
How come the bot let your link on the definition of church go through but not my link on that defintion? Is it pick-and-choose censoring links now?
I wasn't proselytizing for the church of FA
Neither was I. We’re not a religion. I was merely trying to show that the original meaning of the word church was a group of people and not a building. That’s what my link showed (or attempted to until it was censored).
The only thing I can think of is that said bot read my link and somehow decided that it was proselytizing, which it was most definitely not.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/church
Yes, and I see you are behind in your tithing. *picks up a ruler*
Just use the wood one, not the metal one.
Say hi to MTG for us!
She’s 300+ miles north of me - still too close!
"Despite undercounting the number of non-religious Australians, there's still reason to believe Christians will be outnumbered when the results are finally released in 2027."
And YHVH is helpless to stop the change in the Land Down Under. Puny god.
TST is recognized in Australia. :)
AVE SATANAS!!! 😈
Update: So, my mother is doing well after the surgery. Dad is still waiting for the doctor to make his rounds and check up on how she’s doing.
I still have no idea what the surgery entailed or how it affects her.
Hope all is well. My bride gets her foot surgery on Thursday.
Break a leg.
Oops, sorry. I got you mixed up with Val Uptuous. : )
That is berry berry funny.
Far out! My gal gets HER foot worked on a week from Thursday. Coincidence??? 😉
Well, if it went well, she has an intact spine. Over here that would disqualify her from Congress. I don't know about over there. : )
Best wishes.
It's in Australia so it doesn't affect me at all, but I'm curious as to what they do with that information.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5792cf9e7b5c5ea274b3a7392d8250058efc372c10336135df7cd84f4597334.jpg
If the IOC doesn’t think this will repeat with the Olympics, then I have half a river to sell to those dense motherfuckers.
They are probably hoping he strokes out before then.
I sure am hoping that.
I was amazed that he handed Spain the trophy instead of walking off with it.
Isn't pretty much everyone?