Friday, February 25, 2005
US court refuses to overturn abortion statute
The US Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to its landmark 1973 ruling which legalised abortion. Ironically, the appeal was brought by Norma McCorvey, the woman once known as "Jane Roe," who was at the center of the historic case.
McCorvey, who says she now regrets her role in the 1973 decision, argued that the case should be heard again in light of evidence that abortion harms women.
The US Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to its landmark 1973 ruling which legalised abortion. Ironically, the appeal was brought by Norma McCorvey, the woman once known as "Jane Roe," who was at the center of the historic case.
McCorvey, who says she now regrets her role in the 1973 decision, argued that the case should be heard again in light of evidence that abortion harms women.
Oregon's euthanasia law is coming under legal challenge.
Granting a request by the Bush administration, the Supreme Court in Oregon says it will decide whether the Justice Department may bar Oregon doctors from prescribing lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who have chosen to die under that state's 11-year-old Death With Dignity Act.
The court said it will review a lower court's decision preventing enforcement of a November 2001 statement of Justice Department policy by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. The directive said that assisting suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" under federal drug-control law and that the Drug Enforcement Administration could strip the prescribing rights of any physician who authorized drugs to help someone die.
Ashcroft's directive overturned a 1998 decision by President Bill Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, to permit Oregon doctors to assist in suicides.
Granting a request by the Bush administration, the Supreme Court in Oregon says it will decide whether the Justice Department may bar Oregon doctors from prescribing lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who have chosen to die under that state's 11-year-old Death With Dignity Act.
The court said it will review a lower court's decision preventing enforcement of a November 2001 statement of Justice Department policy by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. The directive said that assisting suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" under federal drug-control law and that the Drug Enforcement Administration could strip the prescribing rights of any physician who authorized drugs to help someone die.
Ashcroft's directive overturned a 1998 decision by President Bill Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, to permit Oregon doctors to assist in suicides.
Accent-uating the negative
Have you noticed a strange phenomenon in New Zealand associated with the American accent? Any American who visits here and preaches or speaks seriously on a topic (particularly from a conservative perspective) is immediately suspect. His or her accent acts as an immediate barrier. We cannot consider the idea for the accent. Yet nightly on television, we happily accept the preaching of a dozen American movies and sitcoms, without giving the slightest critique to the attitudes and values we are taking in, and slowly adopting as our own.
Have you noticed a strange phenomenon in New Zealand associated with the American accent? Any American who visits here and preaches or speaks seriously on a topic (particularly from a conservative perspective) is immediately suspect. His or her accent acts as an immediate barrier. We cannot consider the idea for the accent. Yet nightly on television, we happily accept the preaching of a dozen American movies and sitcoms, without giving the slightest critique to the attitudes and values we are taking in, and slowly adopting as our own.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Is there sex in Heaven?
Peter Kreeft undertakes a serious examination of this question you always wanted to ask. (Well, not serious-serious, as in dull and learned, but serious as in thoughtful but entertaining.)I'm not going to spoil the ending! He also asks, but unfortunately does not answer, did Adam and Eve fart before the Fall? Now I am dying of curiosity.
Peter Kreeft undertakes a serious examination of this question you always wanted to ask. (Well, not serious-serious, as in dull and learned, but serious as in thoughtful but entertaining.)I'm not going to spoil the ending! He also asks, but unfortunately does not answer, did Adam and Eve fart before the Fall? Now I am dying of curiosity.
Exposing the dark side of the family
Social Development Minister Steve Maharey has told the new Families Commission not to "romanticise" families. Opening the commission's Auckland office yesterday, he said many families were "not great places to be". "There are huge issues around abuse that we as a society ought to be ashamed of," he said. "Those statistics are issues we have to confront."
What Mr Maharey consistently refuses to confront is the research that overwhelmingly shows that the two-parent married family is, on average, the best environment for both the parents and the children. This does not mean that all married families are perfect -- far from it. But in general they do better in just about every way you can measure.
In the meantime, the government promotes the fantasy that family form does not matter, and that you can call anything family, and everybody will be hunky-dory.
Social Development Minister Steve Maharey has told the new Families Commission not to "romanticise" families. Opening the commission's Auckland office yesterday, he said many families were "not great places to be". "There are huge issues around abuse that we as a society ought to be ashamed of," he said. "Those statistics are issues we have to confront."
What Mr Maharey consistently refuses to confront is the research that overwhelmingly shows that the two-parent married family is, on average, the best environment for both the parents and the children. This does not mean that all married families are perfect -- far from it. But in general they do better in just about every way you can measure.
In the meantime, the government promotes the fantasy that family form does not matter, and that you can call anything family, and everybody will be hunky-dory.
NZ kidnaps the movie
The BBC is under fire for opting to film the famous adventure story Kidnapped in New Zealand, rather than in Scotland where it was originally set. Stands to reason, though, dunnit. After all, there are almost as many Scots in New Zealand now as in Scotland, and we don't have the midges. The only quarrel is they should have filmed on the home turf of one of the home country's more infamous sons, James Mackenzie. But maybe they would have clashed with the movie about him that I believe is being filmed there.
The BBC is under fire for opting to film the famous adventure story Kidnapped in New Zealand, rather than in Scotland where it was originally set. Stands to reason, though, dunnit. After all, there are almost as many Scots in New Zealand now as in Scotland, and we don't have the midges. The only quarrel is they should have filmed on the home turf of one of the home country's more infamous sons, James Mackenzie. But maybe they would have clashed with the movie about him that I believe is being filmed there.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Family & Marriage: Shut up, or the bunny gets it! A new wave of child-rearing manuals calls for an end to soft parenting.
A county clerk can legally refuse to issue a marriage license for a polygamous union, a USA federal judge has ruled, turning aside the argument that a landmark Supreme Court decision overturning anti-sodomy laws should also be applied to plural marriage.
Education: NZ Herald assistant editor John Roughan says the seeds of the NCEA exam debacle were planted 20 years ago.
Society & Values: The ipod is a symbol of an important cultural change -- people are now living in a social cocoon. Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished. People no longer want to know what's going on around them.
Welfare: Tony Blair is planning to woo stay-at-home mothers in the forthcoming general election by pledging a big increase in their basic state pension if Labour is re-elected. The proposed manifesto pledge, worth at least £3 billion, would mean that women would be entitled to full state pensions regardless of how many years they had worked. At present women do not qualify for a state pension if they have not been in full-time work for at least a decade.
Abortion: More than 1,000 girls aged 14 and under in the UK have had abortions in a single year, according to government figures. In addition, 148 were performed on 11, 12 and 13-year-olds.
Law: USA Research psychiatrists say they can now quantify evil, and they will be lobbying state legislatures to adopt their "depravity ratings" for use by courts determining whether to impose the death penalty on convicted murderers.
If you’ve ever wondered why – no matter who holds political power – American society always seems to drift to the left, legal scholar Mark Levin has the answer: the black-robed justices of the Supreme Court, subverting democracy in favor of their own liberal agenda. The Supreme Court imperiously strikes down laws and imposes new ones purely on its own arbitrary whims.
Crime: There is no quick fix to the high rate of young offenders in NZ committing more crimes, the leader of a recent review of Corrections schemes has said. A study carried out by Corrections Department psychologists showed seven out of 10 youth offenders were callous and showed a lack of empathy or remorse.
And now for something completely different: I'm sure you have seen many hilarious examples of Japanese and Chinese English. Unfortunately, improvement appears to be slow. Helen and I host many Asian students, and on the weekend one gave me a gift of a pen and pencil set. The set (purporting to have been manafactured in the USA), came with the following instructions:
"Indication of pen's usage & maintanth:
A. Usage: Dipping penpoint into ink, circumgyrating sopping up in strument for ink and revolving penholder tight."
As Flanders & Swann said in one of their skits: so we did that!
A county clerk can legally refuse to issue a marriage license for a polygamous union, a USA federal judge has ruled, turning aside the argument that a landmark Supreme Court decision overturning anti-sodomy laws should also be applied to plural marriage.
Education: NZ Herald assistant editor John Roughan says the seeds of the NCEA exam debacle were planted 20 years ago.
Society & Values: The ipod is a symbol of an important cultural change -- people are now living in a social cocoon. Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished. People no longer want to know what's going on around them.
Welfare: Tony Blair is planning to woo stay-at-home mothers in the forthcoming general election by pledging a big increase in their basic state pension if Labour is re-elected. The proposed manifesto pledge, worth at least £3 billion, would mean that women would be entitled to full state pensions regardless of how many years they had worked. At present women do not qualify for a state pension if they have not been in full-time work for at least a decade.
Abortion: More than 1,000 girls aged 14 and under in the UK have had abortions in a single year, according to government figures. In addition, 148 were performed on 11, 12 and 13-year-olds.
Law: USA Research psychiatrists say they can now quantify evil, and they will be lobbying state legislatures to adopt their "depravity ratings" for use by courts determining whether to impose the death penalty on convicted murderers.
If you’ve ever wondered why – no matter who holds political power – American society always seems to drift to the left, legal scholar Mark Levin has the answer: the black-robed justices of the Supreme Court, subverting democracy in favor of their own liberal agenda. The Supreme Court imperiously strikes down laws and imposes new ones purely on its own arbitrary whims.
Crime: There is no quick fix to the high rate of young offenders in NZ committing more crimes, the leader of a recent review of Corrections schemes has said. A study carried out by Corrections Department psychologists showed seven out of 10 youth offenders were callous and showed a lack of empathy or remorse.
And now for something completely different: I'm sure you have seen many hilarious examples of Japanese and Chinese English. Unfortunately, improvement appears to be slow. Helen and I host many Asian students, and on the weekend one gave me a gift of a pen and pencil set. The set (purporting to have been manafactured in the USA), came with the following instructions:
"Indication of pen's usage & maintanth:
A. Usage: Dipping penpoint into ink, circumgyrating sopping up in strument for ink and revolving penholder tight."
As Flanders & Swann said in one of their skits: so we did that!
