the fallen, the pitiful and the generally unsuccessful.

Rejected letters of this week:


21st February
If David Irving is finally being charged with Holocaust denial perhaps we could examine how these laws do not damage our rights to free speech (Irving to plead guilty to Holocaust denial charge, 21st Feb)? If sensitivity about the Holocaust is legally mandated in European law surely it is not that much of a stretch to extend these laws to other groups and thus engender a respect for their religious beliefs. Or are Muslims right when they assert that they are consistently treated differently?

22nd February
University level science students who believe in the rather un-scientific doctrine of creationism? (Bible-quoting science students on the rise, 22nd Feb) What’s next; Communist economics students? Anarchist Law students? Modernist architecture students? Or heaven forbid, Liberal voting humanities students? These faculties all operate around certain fundamental, necessary assumptions about how to view the world. It is certainly important that disciplines are open to questioning but the dogmatism which characterizes many of the so-called “scientific creationists” is anything but scientific or critical.

24th February
Mr Costello certainly is onto something with the idea of stripping violent Muslims of Australian citizenship (“Costello to violent Muslims: get out” February 24). Why stop there though, we should be able to extend this even further and repatriate any unsavoury, Un-Australian characters to their country of origin. This plan would also have the added advantage of freeing up our prisons, cleaning up our streets and opening a lot of space in Federal parliament.