Thursday, March 17, 2005
There has been strong opposition to the government's suggestion that we need more "hate speech" laws in New Zealand. Maxim Institute told the Parliamentary enquiry today that there are already more than enough laws controlling what people can and can't say, and any more would be unjustified limitation on the rights of free thought, free expression, and freedom to practice religion.
But "hate speech" laws have not come out thin air. As the Everlasting Man blog points out, there is a pattern going on in New Zealand to limit freedom and bring in more censorship.
Meanwhile, the boundaries of acceptability are being pushed hard in the current round of film festival screenings. In particular, Nine Songs, shows 30 minutes of the sort of sex that was formerly only available from the "Adults only" section of your local video hire. It was passed as R18 by the censor on the grounds that it showed a "loving relationship". David Lane says the rating will allow it to be shown shortly in ordinary movie theatres. There is also concern that once a film gets main-stream cinema release, it will be available for screening on free-to-air TV. If anyone doesn't understand the slippery slope down which we are rapidly sliding, just take a look at the after-10pm offerings on our channels now.
How to lose your ability to counter evil: Melanie Phillips says, "... over the years, the judiciary has systematically destroyed the government’s ability to control this country’s borders and either prevent undesirables from coming in to the country or throw them out. Ministers had panicked because they refused to face up to the real cause of the crisis — the Human Rights Act. It was the judges’ interpretation of this Act which forbade the Government from deporting these foreign terror suspects, thus forcing it to lock them up instead. It was the judges who then used this Act to declare it unlawful to lock them up. And undoubtedly, these same judges will shortly be asked to rule under the same Act that the new control order restrictions are yet another breach of human rights. The root of the problem is human rights law and the arrogant and out-of-touch judges who interpret it. If these suspects are as dangerous as SIAC says, it is utterly ludicrous that we can’t deport them. No country has ever been expected to admit people who pose a threat to the life of the nation. Yet this Government refuses to admit the disaster of its own cherished human rights law and the urgent need to rethink the assumptions beneath it.
Busy UK parents are to get computer access to track their children's progress in school, as part of the government's education technology strategy. Information available could include test results, timetables and homework. The strategy was launched at Millfields Community School in Hackney, east London, where parents are already able to contact the school by e-mail.
An unexpected twist to the tragedy of tsunami survivors in Tamil Nadu is men and women asking for their sterilisations to be reversed. The state government announced this week that families who lost all of their children would be offered free reversals. A local NGO says that more than 600 women and 100 men were eager to take advantage of the offer. Couples whose daughters survived are not eligible, so some are using compensation payments for the death of sons to pay for the reversals. Couples are also turning to IVF clinics which guarantee a male child. ~ Washington Times, Mar 12, 2005 (article only available via subscription)
A range of papers from the World Congress of Families are now available. Many worth reading.
But "hate speech" laws have not come out thin air. As the Everlasting Man blog points out, there is a pattern going on in New Zealand to limit freedom and bring in more censorship.
Meanwhile, the boundaries of acceptability are being pushed hard in the current round of film festival screenings. In particular, Nine Songs, shows 30 minutes of the sort of sex that was formerly only available from the "Adults only" section of your local video hire. It was passed as R18 by the censor on the grounds that it showed a "loving relationship". David Lane says the rating will allow it to be shown shortly in ordinary movie theatres. There is also concern that once a film gets main-stream cinema release, it will be available for screening on free-to-air TV. If anyone doesn't understand the slippery slope down which we are rapidly sliding, just take a look at the after-10pm offerings on our channels now.
How to lose your ability to counter evil: Melanie Phillips says, "... over the years, the judiciary has systematically destroyed the government’s ability to control this country’s borders and either prevent undesirables from coming in to the country or throw them out. Ministers had panicked because they refused to face up to the real cause of the crisis — the Human Rights Act. It was the judges’ interpretation of this Act which forbade the Government from deporting these foreign terror suspects, thus forcing it to lock them up instead. It was the judges who then used this Act to declare it unlawful to lock them up. And undoubtedly, these same judges will shortly be asked to rule under the same Act that the new control order restrictions are yet another breach of human rights. The root of the problem is human rights law and the arrogant and out-of-touch judges who interpret it. If these suspects are as dangerous as SIAC says, it is utterly ludicrous that we can’t deport them. No country has ever been expected to admit people who pose a threat to the life of the nation. Yet this Government refuses to admit the disaster of its own cherished human rights law and the urgent need to rethink the assumptions beneath it.
Busy UK parents are to get computer access to track their children's progress in school, as part of the government's education technology strategy. Information available could include test results, timetables and homework. The strategy was launched at Millfields Community School in Hackney, east London, where parents are already able to contact the school by e-mail.
An unexpected twist to the tragedy of tsunami survivors in Tamil Nadu is men and women asking for their sterilisations to be reversed. The state government announced this week that families who lost all of their children would be offered free reversals. A local NGO says that more than 600 women and 100 men were eager to take advantage of the offer. Couples whose daughters survived are not eligible, so some are using compensation payments for the death of sons to pay for the reversals. Couples are also turning to IVF clinics which guarantee a male child. ~ Washington Times, Mar 12, 2005 (article only available via subscription)
A range of papers from the World Congress of Families are now available. Many worth reading.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Sightings
A major new manifesto on the Family is being released tomorrow by the World Congress of Families. The Natural Family: A Manifesto, a new document written by Allan C. Carlson (President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and International Secretary of The World Congress of Families) and Paul T. Mero (President of the Sutherland Institute). A copy can be downloaded from www.worldcongress.org (not available as at 4.00pm Tuesday NZ time.)
Has Helen Clark got religion? The visiting Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has inspired the New Zealand Government to consider holding inter-faith peace conferences and to lift its role as an international peace negotiator. Norway has played a key mediating role in the Middle East peace process and in negotiations in numerous countries including Sri Lanka, Sudan, Guatemala and the Balkans. Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was looking at helping to host or facilitate a regional meeting of religious leaders.
Colin James says that State income assistance can be a double-edged sword. What the state gives the state can take away - that is a message we usually learn too late.
Religiously involved families of early adolescents, those ages 12 to14, living in the United States appear more likely to have significantly stronger family relationships than do families that are not religiously active. This report examines associations between three dimensions of family religious involvement (the number of days per week the family does something religious, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and the quality of family relationships.
A War Memorial Cross in San Diego, USA, appears to be the latest victim in the nation's debate over religion in the public square. Even though Congress passed a law which could have made the mountaintop site a national monument, an atheist who has been on a 15-year crusade against the cross at the site, is presently winning. The San Diego City Council last week decided to remove the cross - a veterans memorial - that has stood on a La Jolla mountain top for 50 years.
A judge ruled today that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote. The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.
A shocking new report out of the Netherlands finds that for every newborn reported to be euthanized there, another five are killed off the record. Dutch doctors, in a New England Journal of Medicine report, acknowledge giving lethal injections to newborns - babies they say would have spent years in medical care. Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said special attention should be paid when those newborns are described as having "serious, incurable deformities." "Those words are chosen to strike a chord with the listener, to say, 'Oh, my gosh, this child would probably have been better off if it died,' " she explained. "But, in fact, we don't really know what the condition is in some of these (cases)." Besides, she added, no doctor can accurately predict how long someone will live.
Classic hymns have been ditched in favour of songs by Robbie Williams and Led Zeppelin as the preferred choice at funerals. A survey of Europe’s favourite funeral music has revealed that the most likely song to be played at a British crem is not "Abide with me" but Robbie Williams’ "Angels". Eric Idle’s Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" appears to be the choice of the optimistically inclined and REM’s "Everybody Hurts" the choice of the gloomy. Across Europe, Queen’s "The Show Must Go On" topped the funeral pops and the Germans showed a special weakness for heavy metal acts Metallica, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Alan Slater of the National Association of Funeral Directors said the reason that only Italians and the Spanish are opting for classical music was that "We live in a much more secular society". The Times editorial, however, expressed the hope that Muzak would be "completely absent from the afterlife".
Just discovered: The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press (a religious version of Arts & Letters Daily). Some gutsy stuff.
Humanoids with attitude are here. "Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots."
Finally, did you know that the Lord of the Rings has spawned a major research unit at Waikato University?
A major new manifesto on the Family is being released tomorrow by the World Congress of Families. The Natural Family: A Manifesto, a new document written by Allan C. Carlson (President of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and International Secretary of The World Congress of Families) and Paul T. Mero (President of the Sutherland Institute). A copy can be downloaded from www.worldcongress.org (not available as at 4.00pm Tuesday NZ time.)
Has Helen Clark got religion? The visiting Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has inspired the New Zealand Government to consider holding inter-faith peace conferences and to lift its role as an international peace negotiator. Norway has played a key mediating role in the Middle East peace process and in negotiations in numerous countries including Sri Lanka, Sudan, Guatemala and the Balkans. Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was looking at helping to host or facilitate a regional meeting of religious leaders.
Colin James says that State income assistance can be a double-edged sword. What the state gives the state can take away - that is a message we usually learn too late.
Religiously involved families of early adolescents, those ages 12 to14, living in the United States appear more likely to have significantly stronger family relationships than do families that are not religiously active. This report examines associations between three dimensions of family religious involvement (the number of days per week the family does something religious, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer) and the quality of family relationships.
A War Memorial Cross in San Diego, USA, appears to be the latest victim in the nation's debate over religion in the public square. Even though Congress passed a law which could have made the mountaintop site a national monument, an atheist who has been on a 15-year crusade against the cross at the site, is presently winning. The San Diego City Council last week decided to remove the cross - a veterans memorial - that has stood on a La Jolla mountain top for 50 years.
A judge ruled today that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote. The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.
A shocking new report out of the Netherlands finds that for every newborn reported to be euthanized there, another five are killed off the record. Dutch doctors, in a New England Journal of Medicine report, acknowledge giving lethal injections to newborns - babies they say would have spent years in medical care. Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said special attention should be paid when those newborns are described as having "serious, incurable deformities." "Those words are chosen to strike a chord with the listener, to say, 'Oh, my gosh, this child would probably have been better off if it died,' " she explained. "But, in fact, we don't really know what the condition is in some of these (cases)." Besides, she added, no doctor can accurately predict how long someone will live.
Classic hymns have been ditched in favour of songs by Robbie Williams and Led Zeppelin as the preferred choice at funerals. A survey of Europe’s favourite funeral music has revealed that the most likely song to be played at a British crem is not "Abide with me" but Robbie Williams’ "Angels". Eric Idle’s Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" appears to be the choice of the optimistically inclined and REM’s "Everybody Hurts" the choice of the gloomy. Across Europe, Queen’s "The Show Must Go On" topped the funeral pops and the Germans showed a special weakness for heavy metal acts Metallica, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Alan Slater of the National Association of Funeral Directors said the reason that only Italians and the Spanish are opting for classical music was that "We live in a much more secular society". The Times editorial, however, expressed the hope that Muzak would be "completely absent from the afterlife".
Just discovered: The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press (a religious version of Arts & Letters Daily). Some gutsy stuff.
Humanoids with attitude are here. "Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots."
Finally, did you know that the Lord of the Rings has spawned a major research unit at Waikato University?
