I’m sure you’ve heard the suggestion of Sheikh Khalil – that polygamous marriage be legalised in Australia.

Since I first heard the report I’ve been wondering what the responses would be, particuarly from politics, media and the society at large. …I have to say I’ve found the discussion to be fascinating.

I’ve tried to keep a track of the responses:

• We don’t want Shari’ah law in Australia
• Australians pride ourselves on our tolerance for other religions and cultures, so why not?
• They might be saying they want it, but do they really want it? (particuarly insinuating that women are being coerced into speaking in support of polygynous marriage) …it’s a kind of ‘we know best’ argument
• What we love about marriage is ‘partnership’ and ‘equality’. Having multiple partners (wives?) would erode these values. (It was a kind of feminist perspective, fearful of women losing their power in marriages)
• It already happens in practice, but is not able to be legally recognised. Why bury your head in the sand (Keysar Trad’s argument)
• It should, but should go both ways. (Women have multiple husbands, polyandry)

Have you heard any others? Any overtly Christian responses in the media? (and what did you think of them?)

What would you say, for example, if you were a politician?

After enjoying one of my banana muffins today (see below), I came across some interesting banana facts c/o NY times…

Apparently they could be extinct one day! eek!

Image/link: Delicious Ghost

[It's also worth checking out 'Gay Bread' at DG. more funny than dodgy - trust me!]

Holidays are already off to a good start.

Highlight of Saturday: Baking awesome banana muffins. (Recipe in ‘The essential baking cookbook’, Bay Books is sensational)

Highlight of Sunday: A trip to Earlwood Garden Centre. I added a bay tree, continental parsley and snow peas to our little herb garden.

I find both cooking and gardening very satisfying activities…(when they go right!)

See here…

I’m asking for your suggestions for a list of 129 things to do before I leave college. preferably fun/strange/interesting, but I’ll take what you’re givin’!

We got a knock on our door last night just when we were about to cook tea…

Someone had backed into the street post and left the power cable dangling only a meter or two above the road. The knock was a courtesy to inform us that we’d be without power for the next 3 or so hours.

Jodie was not so impressed, but after we’d grabbed tea I enjoyed standing out front to watch the repair. The guys that fix these things are like monkeys!! they are up and down the pole, stand on what looks like an ironing board all while the power lines are still live. I wonder if they get danger money??

One of them told me that the cost for the job they were doing would be $10k+. eesh! wouldn’t like to be the driver that hit it.

Hi folks,

If you use the parsing feature of the Greek flash-card widget, you should download the file again. I’ve posted an update which fixes all the bugs you’ve been reporting to me (I hope!)

Had dinner with Steph on friday, while she was over on lightning-fast conference trip to the east-side.

Was great fun! and food was great (and pretty cheap). If any of you are around the Marrickville area, and want some viet goodness Old Thanh Huong is worth checking out.

out of interest – which would you pick, cold rolls or fried quail?

I don’t know how many of you out there are keen music listeners… but if you are, you should get into to Last.FM. It’s nothing new I know, but thought I’d check it out and have to say I’ve really been enjoying it!

The idea is that you let it know what you listen to, then when you use its radio feature it will play you songs that you’ll theoretically like. there’s an itunes plugin that uploads what you listen to on your ipod and itunes which is nice.

As you can see on the right side, you can show what you’re listening to etc.

If you get into it, let me know – there’s some friend feature, so i’ll make you my music buddy or something!