Looking back on the last year and a bit, as a blogger with too little time to devote, Being Frank has still provided much discussion, some food for thought, and more than a little frustration for me.

Thank you to those who have read my posts, shared your opinions and demonstrated your love of the Church, however our understandings of “Church” may differ.

As I hand on the Wednesday posts to my successor (pseudonym as yet unknown), I’d ask everyone to remember why we all follow this blog, why we check it every day, week or month. We come to it from many different backgrounds, different political leanings, different theological and justice emphases: we come to it as diverse members of the faith that unites us.

As you live out the prayer of your lives, may you know and practice charity and love.

God bless,

Peter the First

I’ll keep it short and not too controversial today…

PC security is a topic never too far from the spotlight, but there’s one very simple way to protect your web browsing, without costing more than a few MB of traffic: upgrade your web browser.

I know that some on this blog already do, but if you really want to improve both your security and browsing experience, download Firefox (http://www.firefox.com).

If you’re for some reason a Microsoft purist (now there’s a topic for the Pope’s next encyclical!) then IE7 (http://www.microsoft.com/ie) is still a far safer option than IE6. Better still, all recent browsers are moving closer towards W3C compliance, which means that you’ll see all the whistles and bells on any new website, and avoid the “your browser is too old” messages!

Oh, and since The Dumb Ox asked for “the real social justice issues” to stand up (and asked so nicely), it’s probably a good idea to be aware of Cafod’s reports on the computer industry, and exploitation of workers in global supply chains. You can find the original (2004) and followup (2006) reports here.

Michael Brewer was rescued yesterday, after being trapped by a cave-in.

The rescue effort included a peak of some 70 people, and turned the tables on Michael, who has participated in rescue effors in the past.

I was absolutely sickened by radio reports on the incident yesterday, which ended with the question of “cost”, i.e. how the rescue would, strangely, not cost Brewer anything.

It’s increasingly noticeable these days, that whenever a high-profile rescue takes place, the same issue is raised. When someone’s yacht is capsized, or plane goes down, “the rescue operation cost x” is given more and more emphasis in the media. The same few misguided individuals rabbit on about how “if you do risky activities, you should be prepared to pay for the risk”… and it’s all so alien to what society is all about, not to mention statistically flawed.

It is, statistically, far riskier to get in my car and drive to work than it is to go caving. Yet, if a car knocks mine off the road, and the jaws of life are required to cut me free, nobody asks whether I’ll be paying for the fire department callout. And nor should they. Civilised society is about working together for mutual benefit. This expectation that “user pays” for basic human compassion and assistance is a sick, immoral idea, and one that I was glad to see absent from online reports of yesterday’s event.

In the US, it’s a medium used by NCR. In Rome, it can be found under Vatican Radio. In New Zealand, Catholic podcasting is just beginning.

A certain national Catholic newspaper is launching The 15th Station today. The 15th Station ushers podcasting into Catholic circles in NZ. Take a look (and a listen) at http://www.station15.co.nz!