Argument from poor design

During my usual "wiki-walking" I came accross the following article

Argument from poor design

The argument from poor design is the argument I was posing the other day in my post Could have done a better job.

Prior to my posting the other day, I had no prior knowledge of this non-existence argument. Everything I wrote was my own idea, though of course I am not the first person to think such things. Indeed there are many more types of non-existence arguments.

Such occasions like this serve only to strengthen my belief in the non-existence of a God. The fact that I have thought about this concept and then discovered it is an existing argument, as opposed to the other way around; suggests my atheism is something that is inherent in me.

Atheism is a rather broad description though and can encompass a wide variety of beliefs. I could narrow the definition of my own personal views to be closer to antitheistic, that is; an opposition to the belief in God. While this is true for myself, I cannot be totally opposed to the belief in a deity or the organisation of such a belief into religion.

A supernatural belief system has served a purpose in the evolution of human society. As the human consciousness developed, so did the need for answers to complex questions to do with the nature of existence. Belief in God(s) is a quick and simple answer for that which cannot be explained. However as knowledge and science develops, these beliefs can be superseded. Whereas once people thought the earth was flat, and at the centre of the universe; a belief enforced by the church with the threat of death; we now know that this is not true.

Belief in a deity is also useful in developing a morals and ethics system. While these values are essentially born out of self preservation, it is easier to instill these values in a majority if it appears they are the insistence of an infallible higher power.

Belief in God also provides the weak minded with a great deal of comfort and reassurance in life; it gives people a purpose and meaning for their lives that they would otherwise not have. The thought of being loved is a wonderful experience and so to be convinced that one is loved by an omnipotent being is a powerful thing.

Let us not forget either that, while there will always be those who abuse it for their own personal agenda, the general intentions of religion are well meaning.

So it is for the positive impact that religion has and its effect of being the "opium of the masses," that I cannot be totally against it per se. Though just because religion can be good, doesn't mean it is true.

Which is why it is not for me

The easy way to go from 0 - 200mph

Yesterday Sarah and I jumped out of a perfectly good plane at 13,000 feet. The plane wasn’t going to crash, in fact it landed safely shortly afterwards. Fortunately for us we were each strapped to a professional sky-diving instructor, who was in turn attached to a parachute.

After a couple of tumbles we straightened up, arms out, legs back and head up, it was only a split second before we were travelling at 120mph. At that speed it should have taken us 45 seconds of freefall to reach 5,000 feet where the chute was deployed. I can tell you though there was no way we fell for that long, we were plummeting much faster than 120mph. I’d say our free fall lasted no longer than 30 seconds which meant we would have been pushing 200mph. The rip cord was pulled at 5,000 feet and we decelerated sharply; with the parachute open we sailed comfortably down to the landing site, making a few turns, enjoying the view and having a brief chat. My instructor, who had been jumping for 26 years, landed us gently and I envied him for the fact that he went off to get someone else strapped to him to do it all again!

My suspicions over the speed of my descent were certainly confirmed when, despite being the last one out of the plane, I was the second one to land. It seems I might be pushing the maximum weight of 95kg for a skydiver, so I had better lay off the pies a bit. For both Sarah and I this was the most exhilarating experience I have ever had, we were both on a high for the rest of the day and I am still getting a buzz writing about it now.

I will definitely do this again, next time I’m flying solo.

Could have done a better job

As I was browsing through my favourite website Wikipedia the other day, I clicked on a link to the article on the big bang. There I found that some moron had tagged the page for immediate deletion for reason (written with rather poor spelling) that it was all just damned lies spread by evil scientists. Being the good chap that I am I quickly reinstated the page to ensure it was not deleted.

It was obvious to me that this had been done by one of those ignorant and narrow minded people who, despite mountains of evidence to support it, argue that the theory of evolution, both of the universe and of life, is in fact not true. The alternative theory for all this is of course that everything was created in one week, 8,000 years ago, by God. They make this claim of course because it says so in a few books written by people who thought the earth was flat.

Before I make the main point of this post today, I would like to pose a thought for the people who subscribe to creationist theory. Why is it not possible for many of these people to combine evolution and creationism? I think their general credibility would be greatly increased if they accepted evolution as fact and simply said that evolution was God’s method of creation. You need to build a house bit by bit, so surely God would need to do the same with the universe. Sadly though this would require everyone to remove their heads from the sand; where it is nice and warm and comfortable.

So let’s stick with the crazies and ask questions of creationism. Some subscribers to this school of thought are wising up to the fact that it just doesn’t hold any water and are not trying to sneak their way in by calling it Intelligent Design. Proponents of ID claim that because many things that exist on earth that are so complicated, they must have been created by an intelligent designer, i.e. God, and could not have happened simply through chance. These proponents are trying to pass this off as science, even though it cannot be tested by experiment, does not generate any predictions, and proposes no new hypotheses of its own. It is just an idea; cute, but it is still just creationism, and it is still not backed up with any evidence.

So let’s just ignore all the evidence for evolution; let’s close our eyes, put our fingers in our ears, and sing “la la la la la I’m not listening to you.” Let’s say the universe, earth, and mankind were created by a perfect God. If this is true, then why has He not done a better job? If he made us, then why do we have vestigial organs? We don’t need a coccyx, or an appendix, or wisdom teeth; so why did God make them? The earth is far from a completed work; there are volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other nasty natural phenomenon. A bit rough around the edges there! If we are God’s project then why has he bothered to make the billions upon billions of other stars in the universe?

Come on God, why haven’t you done a better job? If you’re so perfect, why did you need to take a rest on the seventh day? Maybe you should have worked a bit harder and you might have got it right! ID or creationism could not possibly explain our life and our universe, there are just far too many imperfections. Only a process of stellar creation and destruction, of accretion, of natural selection and evolution, can offer a proper explanation. But of course this is what science seeks to achieve, it seeks to ask how and not why. Religion seeks to simply suggest why, and remove the need to ask how. We shouldn’t be asking how; why is because it is God’s will, we should just accept that.

No thanks, it’s just too degrading.

Needless to say.....

.... the BBC haven't published my comment about the fata girl story. Pathetic. Come one Beeb, what about a bit of constructive criticism? My comment wasn't harsh or abusive, let people read some other opinions besides the "let's all feel sorry for the fatty" ones. They were probably all written by fatties anyway.

34 Stone Teen

I stumbled accross this article on the bbc website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5279052.stm

I thought I would add the following comment as others have done at the bottom of the page.

I find it funny that there are so many sympathetic comments towards this girl. These days when so much criticism is levelled at people who smoke and binge drink; why are you not chastising her for binge eating? She is causing far greater damage to her body than a smoker would and people like her must be an incredible strain on the NHS. Congratulations for finally trying to do something about your weight but surely you should have done somthing 15 stone ago.

Certainly there is far too much emphasis on physical appearance in modern society; accross both sexes but markedly more for females. The article cites that 94% of women are not happy with their bodies; I am sure that for the vast majority of them, there is nothing at all wrong with their bodies. People like the girl in the article though are a totally different case. There is plenty wrong with their bodies, they are disgusting. While there is so much emphasis nowadays on people who smoke and how much damage they are doing to their bodies, there seems to be a lot less than there should be for people who are eating themselves to death. Don't be sympathetic to this girl, don't feel sorry because people are hurling abuse at her; people should hurl abuse at her. She deserves to be abused for letting herself get to 34 stone. Face the cold hard facts of reality love; you're fat and disgusting and as soon as someone tells you that, you eat more; so you're pathetic as well. Why should the NHS pay for your operation when everything that's wrong with you is self inflicted?

Dynamo Chernobyl

It’s not been very long at all that we have been without our regular dose of football. The world cup lasted us through the beginning of summer and now the Premiership is about to start again. I have not even begun to get withdrawal symptoms but that’s ok, I’m ready for a new season. We will keep our fingers crossed for another good season from Spurs, just finishing one spot better than last season will do. I am going to the first home match on Tuesday night which is against Sheffield United; those are certainly the games we should be winning convincingly if we want to challenge for a place in the top 4.

Of course the football season is always more interesting when one has a fantasy football team. I have very similar teams entered this year in the metro and the sun competitions. The metro one I doubt I will bother too much with as you need to monitor that one and can make up to 6 transfers each month. Whereas I much rather the one in the sun; you pick your team and that’s it, there are 2 transfer windows where you can change 3 players at a time, but apart from that it does not require any monitoring.

So this is my sun dream team for 2006/2007

DYNAMO CHERNOBYL

G Reina Liverpool

D Arca - Middlesbrough
D Terry - Chelsea
D Ferdinand - Manchester United
D Eboue - Arse

M Jagielka - Sheffield United
M Fabregas - Arse
M N’Zogbia - Newcastle United

S Defoe - Spurs
S Bellamy - Liverpool
S Shevchenko - Chelsea

On further thought

Now that the dust has settled slightly after last week’s terrorist related incident, I feel it appropriate to comment further. Just like the sudden change in security conditions at British airports was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, so was my commentary on the situation.

Sometimes it may sound as though I am condoning the actions of the people we label terrorists; this is most certainly not the case. I do not agree with their beliefs, their words, their methods, and their actions. They are cowards. They are people who wish to commit mass murder first, and then use religion and politics to justify it second. They are enemies of my country. However I believe that they are enemies that have been made, in part, by the actions of the government of my country. I do not agree with their actions either. For the most part I think a lot of the problems extend from the invasion of Iraq, and the continuing civil unrest caused by such invasion and occupation. Iraq has now become a terrorist breeding ground; every day, every day there is an article in the paper about the latest bombing atrocity in Iraq. Dozens of innocent people are being murdered every single day. The reports of these such happenings though are taking up less column inches, and are moving further and further back into the paper. Eventually we won’t read about it at all, but that won’t mean that it isn’t happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people have been killed since the invasion, than were killed by Saddam Hussein. Oh and where again are those Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Iraq gives people a reason to hate us, it creates enemies; the people who wish to bomb us will feel justified in doing so because of Iraq. This should be expected though, when you make an unprovoked attack on another country, you should expect some people to be unhappy about it. This is fine, but the problem is that the Government continues to act as though we are completely innocent victims of terrorism. Their mantra is that these people hate us and they want to kill us, and there isn’t really any reason for that, apart from the fact that they are evil. This is bullshit! The government needs to take responsibility for its actions; there were many people who didn’t like us to start off with, but Iraq has just made it a whole lot worse. It bothered me that the US and UK tried to claim the moral high ground when invading Iraq, that what they were doing was right. So many people knew it was wrong and what has happened since has only convinced everyone else that it was a bad idea. Yet the government still try to claim they were right, does anyone still believe them? Every time some new terrorist plot is foiled (though we cannot foil them all) the government will bleat on about how these people are bad and want to kill us and we have done nothing at all to provoke this.

I think that it’s this garbage that makes me mad the most. If the US and UK had just have said in the first place, that they quite fancied invading Iraq because they didn’t like Saddam, they needed another allied position in the middle east, fancied his oil, and ‘what the hell, we’ve got all these guns and military might, we may as well since nobody is going to be able to stop us;’ then I’m not sure I would be so pissed off. At least then they would be telling the truth. Then when they do uncover ‘terrorist’ plots to blow us up, they can admit that it was probably some people who were angry about Iraq, but hey, they’re pathetic little weasels, what’s this they’re making bombs out of? drink bottles? Hah! We can do better than that, we’ll crush you. I don’t think that would really bother me because then no one would be bullshitting me!

The really unfortunate issue in this most recent case is that all the suspects arrested were born in Britain. They are not foreigners, not Iraqis or Afghanis who are angry about the invasion of their country, but British citizens, represented by the British government. Therefore they have a right to be upset with their government, who they feel have poorly represented them internationally. Of course their right to be angry does not extend to a right to be violent.

Let us though think about the difference between a British Citizen, and a Briton. Is someone who conspires to commit such crimes against ones own country, really a true citizen of that country? These people have committed treason. Until 1998, treason was still technically punishable by death in Britain. Though thankfully it is no longer as surely government sponsored murder is still murder. Of course death is not the answer for these people. As they were planning on killing themselves anyway, death would make them martyrs in their own eyes and those of their supporters. So what is a country supposed to do when its own citizens want to commit these kinds of crimes against it? How many more of its citizens think this way, and why?

Britain seems to be suffering from colonial guilt. Guilty of the fact that Britain claimed so many other nations for her own, that she must now not upset anyone who should come to live here. There are many people of Indian and Pakistani origin living in Britain, because the Empire first went and lived in their country. This is certainly fair enough. There are people from many other nationalities who come to make their home here, most of whom add a great wealth of culture and knowledge to the general community. They are however allowed to do this far too freely; Britain is far too tolerant of immigrants and people who are not culturally similar.

There appears to be this general fear of upsetting people, especially minority groups; increasingly this seems to be at the expense of the majority. During the world cup, there was much consternation as to whether people should fly the St George’s flag, lest some people might be offended by it. This is the national flag of England and if you are living in England and are offended by it then that’s your problem.
Next month there was to be a Muslims only day at the theme park Alton Towers, though apparently due to lack on interest it has been cancelled. Could you imagine what kind of trouble would have been started if someone had have organised a ‘whites only’ day? Needless to say there was much disagreement from both non Muslims and Muslims alike. Clearly this does not promote integration.
If one goes to the website of one’s London Borough council, one can find that services are available in quite a large number of different languages, some of which I have never even heard of. This is just making easier for immigrants not to integrate with the culture of the nation.

Immigration is great, but immigrants should be encouraged to adopt the culture of the nation. They can do this without having to lose their own culture; but the easier we make it for them to not have to integrate, then the more they will not bother to do so. Language is the first barrier, if we make local government services available in English only, then people will need to speak English in order to live here successfully. Making it easy for people not to integrate, will only segregate society. We will end up with pockets of different communities who have absolutely nothing to do with each other. This can happen across generations and this is how we end up with a country’s own citizens plotting against it.

Na Zdravi

Well, my flight was cancelled. Fortunately though I managed to get on the next one out which was only two and a half hours later; which is about how long it took me to go through security. I was at terminal 4 which was probably a lot less busy than the other ones, but I generally thought it was quite well handled. People were patient and the airport was relatively well organised. I managed to call BA and have my flight changed, I felt for the people who were queuing for the ticket desk which was out the door, around the corner, and then fed by two further queues set up in marquees in the car park!

So I got to Vienna only a little later and met Rob who had been waiting patiently for me. We went to our hotel, which was cleverly selected for its proximity to Schnitzelwirt, dropped our gear and headed out for lunch. We went to Schnitzelwirt when we were travelling around Europe 5 years ago, they have the most amazing schnitzel there and we have been raving about it ever since; Vienna (a city of immense culture and history) was chosen so we could go back and eat these schnitzels again. I had already joked that with the foiled terrorist plot causing problems in getting there; Allah was conspiring to prevent me from eating pork. We joked further on the way to the restaurant that wouldn’t it be funny if it was closed.

It was!

Closed for the holidays between July 24 and August 20.

Oh well, the irony of it all. We still found a couple of other places for schnitzel, including a really good Austrian beer hall which brewed its own beer. We managed to stuff ourselves silly and loosen our belts by a couple of notches.

The next day we took the short train trip to Brno, the capital of Moravia in the Czech Republic. We met our friend Roman who drove us to Trebic where we had lunch (more schnitzel) and then to the tiny village of Horni Vilemovice. There we spent the afternoon at a farm-house - chatting, playing games, drinking and enjoying a Czech-style-BBQ. Suitably feed and boozed, at 10:30pm it was time to hike through the forest to the neighbouring village where a rock cover-band were putting on a show. When we started throwing back shots of a spirit named after Boozy-Boris the former Russian president - we knew things could only go down hill from there. Rocking to some classic Czech rock music in a random hall in the Moravian countryside, was not something that most Australians would find themselves doing; but we did it well. Needless to say the trek back home through the pitch dark at 3.30am was an event, one that included Rob falling into a ditch. Pure gold. It was really fun night and boy did I suffer the next day; without a doubt the worse hangover I have had in a long time meant that the trip back to London was not much fun.

We made it back though without any hitches, in fact our flight landed 15 minutes ahead of schedule as the chief flight attendant so gleefully announced. It was another top weekend with Rob, we always seem to make the most of things together. We always know exactly what we are thinking and I am sure that eventually we will be able to communicate telepathically since we usually know what the other is going to say before it has been said. I’ll miss him a lot when he’s gone, but there’ll never be any goodbyes, just see you later.

Petitions won't matter

My Sarah forwarded me an email asking me to sign a petition, to stop the bloodshed in the middle east; specifically the current Israel - Lebanon conflict. So I did. Though I don't think it will make any difference at all. It really wont matter how many people sign the petition. We could get the whole nation to sign it and it still wont affect anything. 2 million democratic citizens of this country marched through the streets of London in protest against the war in Iraq, did it make a difference? No!

Both sides of the conflict are showing a flagrant disregard for international law; many innocent civilians are being killed. It has already developed into a 'tit for tat' conflict, where each side claims their attacks are in retaliation against the other.

Hizbollah are a guerilla group, they have limited means in acheiving their objectives, they are not a nation in themselves, they do not have a proper military and they do not have a representative in the UN. Israel do. Israel are in a greater position to end this conflict, they can be the bigger party, they can choose not to retaliate and they can choose not to use more and more force to resolve this. But they won't. Israel think they can get away with doing whatever the hell they want, with impunity. Do you know what? They can, because the US lets them. They are just as much terrorists as the people they label as such.

This conflict will end if the US tells Israel to stop, simple as that, they have the power and they are the only ones who have the power to stop it. So petitions and protests and UN calls for ceasefires are going to do nothing until the US acts against Israel. I really think that is the cold hard truth of the matter

Keeping my fingers crossed

MI5 have uncovered a plot to blow up a number of planes flying between the UK and USA, pretty much all airports in the UK are at a standstill. Aircraft, unless already airborne, will not be allowed to land at Heathrow. People lucky enough to get on their flight, can not take any hand luggage on board. This is f**ked!

I’m supposed to be flying to Vienna tomorrow morning out of Heathrow. Something tells me I might not make my flight. Even if I do I won’t be able to take my PSP on board! But I suppose that’s not too much of a tragedy. Rob and I are supposed to be making a pilgrimage to Schnitzelwirt in Vienna this weekend; he is heading back to Australia in a month’s time so this will be our last little trip together. Fortunately for Rob he is already on the continent and shouldn’t have too much trouble getting to Vienna from Frankfurt. I will be very angry if I am unable to join him there.

I will not however be angry specifically with the so called terrorists who were going to blow up the planes. Although I certainly don’t sympathise with them at all, and in fact think they are pathetic and cowardly little worms; I blame Tony Blair and George Bush, the democratically elected leaders of our nations.

They are as neanderthalistic as the people they dub terrorists. Attacking Iraq is one of the major causes of people wanting to blow up airplanes in the UK and USA. How on earth is it a good idea to ‘fight terrorism’ by going and starting another war? Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed in Iraq since we invaded the place and it’s not getting any better. Sure; there were probably plenty of people out there who didn’t like our country, but that’s life! By invading Iraq all we have done is given organisations, which our leaders like to call terrorists, further motivation to come and attack us. It must be so much easier for these people to recruit people to their cause now, all they have to point at the absolute carnage we have caused in Iraq; they must have potential recruits lining up around the block! Sure, there are plenty of people out there who will hate the West no matter what, but some of these guys are probably just fighting back. They’re pissed off that we went and started blowing up Iraq and so they figured they should blow us up as well. They don’t have the same kind of means as our multi billion dollar armies, so they use what they have to make the most impact. Yet this makes them terrorists! They are no more terrorists than the armies of the UK and USA, and no matter how many times they are successful in bombing us and no matter how many civilians they kill; it will still not be as many as the number of innocent people who have been killed by our armies!

This whole incident will very conveniently move the Israel – Lebanon conflict from the front page of the newspaper. We won’t be talking about them for a little while and both sides can continue to show scant regard for international law, and kill more innocent men, women and children. The unwavering support that the US has shown for Israel in spite of many countless UN attempts to condemn its actions is another reason why the US is so hated. Again this time, the US will oppose any attempt to censor Israel and the conflict will continue, and it will continue further back in our newspapers, to join the reports of another 50 civilians dead each day in Iraq, on page 12 or 13.

Let me stress that in no way to I condone the actions of the people who mean to blow us up, I despise them, but the blood of every person they kill is on the hands of our leaders. They are no more terrorists than our government are. However having said all this it would appear that all those arrested are in fact British born. Which doesn't make them crusaders for their cause, fighting for their brothers in Iraq; it just makes them dickheads.

All short Haul flights in and out of Heathrow have now been cancelled for today. I really hope I get on my flight tomorrow; as I check flight information, I can see it has already been delayed by 90 minutes. That however is not necessarily a bad thing as it was supposed to be a 7.30am flight which meant I was going to have to fork out 27 quid to get to Heathrow on time. At least now I can get there on public transport. So I suppose every cloud has a silver lining. I hope my silver lining stays and I can get to Vienna in time to see my best mate and the best schnitzel that I have been waiting more than 5 years to taste again.

ROFLMAO

My mate Rob is all class. This is an email he's written to our housemates, it wont make any sense to anyone who doesn't live with me, but I just want to put it here for posterity purposes.

Josie,

I have half a carrot in the fridge. I think it is about to go bad [You know how carrots go limp and languid after a time] - so if you want it, you should eat it.

I hate to waste food! There are so many starving people in this world. Once, when I was travelling the world for 11 years - looking for ancient Persian artifacts, exotic Sir Lanka spices, and loose women - I came across a young child who was so hungry that he was eating his brother's forearm, recently amputated of course. I later consulted a guru about this who informed me that on the 3rd Sunday of every month it is acceptable to masticate on one's family's appendages, in the absence of carrots.

Oh yes, I named the carrot Ravi. And before you dine on Ravi, or any vegetables for that matter, I usually find it appropriate to give thanks to Jesus. And then write a book about him. And then eat the carrot.

God bless,

Robi

Open Letter to Greg Growden

Yesterday I typed up an email to send to Greg Growden, I'm not much of a fan of Growden, and I think there are a few others who feel the same. I have just sent it to him, I am sure I will not hear another thing about it, in the mean time though, Rugby Heaven have two more articles on the topic. It would seem Spiro Zavos has caught the anti Gregan bug from Growden, and even Eddie Jones reckons Giteau should have a number 9 on his back! There must be something in the water down at Fairfax.

Anyway, I'll let you read it yourself. Any comments are welcome. Not that anyone actually reads this blog.

Greg Growden, this week’s Monday Maul began with you mentioning SANZAR officials had agreed that there was much in the game that stank; I assume you attended some of these meetings as a ‘self important rugby type.’ I suggest to you Greg Growden that the most putrid stink in Rugby at the moment is your journalistic coverage and opinions on the game.

You offer absolutely no constructive or thoughtful analysis of any matches, merely using your position as a soap box to whinge, complain and criticise. As chief rugby correspondent, your consistent negativity is a stain on Australian rugby in general and I hope that those involved with the Wallabies who do read the Sydney Morning Herald, simply regard your commentating as the childish rambling that it is. Before the tri nations started, you commented that the Wallabies would perhaps have a chance to win this year, not through their ability to improve their own game and show the potential that they certainly have, but because the All Blacks might rotate their squad and not have their best 15 players on the pitch. Besides the point that you have been proven wrong, your comments seem to highlight the general disdain you have for the national team. This week’s Monday Maul also saw you make reference to the fact there must be “many Wallabies sycophants who accept being number 2“; it would seem to me that you also subscribe to this school of thought.

Your incessant personal crusade against George Gregan is a disgrace. I am not sure what kind of personal vendetta you have against him, but you have been the chief antagonist in the constant criticism that has been largely unfairly levelled at him. In your so called post match analysis on Saturday’s game you again placed the blame for Australia’s poor performance squarely on Gregan’s shoulders. You again used your soap box to suggest his axing from the team, and you failed entirely, again, to recognise the positive impact Gregan had on the game. In a match that was nothing short of forgettable, Gregan was noticeably one of the better players for the Wallabies. You have criticised Gregan in the past for not running enough with the ball in hand, yet on Saturday he made a number of positive attacking runs and line breaks. You consistently fail to acknowledge the leadership and experience that Gregan brings, he has now deservedly become the man to captain the Wallabies the most number of times, and he continues to do so with aplomb. It seems as though there is nothing that Gregan can do to redeem himself in your eyes.

Sam Cordingly has certainly performed well enough this year to suggest that he could be considered at scrum half and deserves his place in the Wallaby squad; but he has not proved to be vastly technically superior to Gregan and obviously does not have the leadership and experience of the longest serving Wallaby captain. You praised Cordingly’s contribution on the weekend however often any fresh player who comes on with only 10 minutes remaining is likely to make an impact. Cordingly’s performances however are merely a convenience for you as you have consistently called for Gregan’s sacking, regardless of the quality of a potential replacement. In this week’s Monday Maul you made what could possibly be regarded as the most outrageous claim made by someone who calls himself a ‘rugby expert.’ The suggestion that you should drop George Gregan and replace him with Matt Giteau is beyond ludicrous. Have you asked Giteau whether he wishes to play at number 9? Giteau is a magnificent talent and I’m sure he could play in any number of positions, but how many times has he played professional rugby in a number 9 shirt? How can you possibly suggest that he would be a better scrum half than the world’s most capped test rugby player ever! Giteau was outstanding at number 12 (his preferred position) when he returned form injury in the first test against South Africa; the Wallabies are by far a superior side with him at number 12. Taking the world’s most expensive rugby talent out of his preferred position to take the place of the captain at scrum half will ensure that not only do you weaken your side, but you don’t get the best out of your best player.

Your suggestion to replace Gregan with Giteau suggest that you know absolutely nothing about rugby whatsoever; though given that your position as a rugby journalist, this is probably not true. So the only thing that your comments have done is highlighted that you clearly have some kind of personal vendetta against George Gregan, which seems uninfluenced by what happens on the rugby field.

It is sad for Australian rugby that you are in any way involved with our magnificent game. Your opinions are childish, arrogant, biased and often impertinent. It is unfortunate that while you are entitled to your opinions, you also have a platform for which to share them. You have used your column to wage a personal crusade against George Gregan, which is why I have little qualms in expressing my opinions to you, in a way that is much more vehement that merely disagreeing with you.

I long for the day when the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief rugby correspondent, is a person who actually wants to write about rugby.