Friday, August 05, 2005
Police have held a crisis recruitment meeting after concerns that intake numbers are down 50 per cent and officers are leaving faster than can be replaced, the Police Association said today. This doesn't square with Police Minister George Hawkins assurances only a week ago that there was no problem. So who's right?
An inquiry into problems with secondary school exams blames unstable leadership and poor communication at the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA). The second State Service Commission review of the education system said the leadership failures helped to create a lack of consistency in marks. It also said, following its investigation into NZQA and the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), that the authority tried to do too much too quickly.
As a consequence, the NZQA has bowed to public pressure to record failure on externally assessed NCEA results. Acting chief Karen Sewell said yesterday that changes were under way to ensure this year's examinations were sound. She confirmed that there would be "significant changes" in the longer term. In the short term, the board had agreed to make it clear on a result certificate when a pupil had failed a particular subject, by recording it as "not achieved". NZQA's decision last year to leave that information off results was criticised and drew complaints from employers. Failure in external assessment was recorded only on a website accessible to pupils.
Christchurch City councillors have ignored legal advice and will appeal against a High Court decision quashing their prostitution bylaw, leaving ratepayers to foot more legal bills. Although top law firm Simpson Grierson rated the appeal's chance of success at just 25 per cent, councillors yesterday voted nine to two in favour of appealing against Justice Panckhurst's decision removing the council's geographical controls on brothels.
The alienation felt by young blacks and Asians in the UK is not a result of any intolerance shown towards them, but of the endless tolerance of those who would allow everything and stand up for nothing. It is the excesses permitted by a culture spawned by the liberal Left that have produced a generation that feels rootless and hopeless. The young crave noble purposes as children need discipline; neither get much of them in modern Britain and the void is filled by disrespect, fecklessness, mindless nihilism or, worse, wicked militancy.
This is the world Britain has lost. Once, football crowds sang “Abide with Me” or “Bread of Heaven”; today they sing songs full of thoughtless blasphemies, obscenities, and thought-out sexual and racial abuse to upset their opponents. Regular attendance at Sunday School was a standard part of most people’s youth, and it was the place where standards of respectability were inculcated. Britain’s was a society with a remarkably low and falling incidence of violent and acquisitive crime, illegitimacy, and addiction to opiates. Public drunkenness was a problem, but it was gradually ceasing to be so; by the 1920s it had all but disappeared.
When civil society disintegrates, the state has to step in to do what character and virtues once did. In the UK, the government plans to introduce a national ID card, which is running into a lot of flak. Only yesterday the government's own data protection watchdog said the ID card scheme could turn Britain into a "surveillance society". Information Commissioner Richard Thomas condemned the project as "excessive and disproportionate", adding that it would allow civil servants to build a detailed picture of how every adult lives their lives.
Breast implants for 18-year-olds? Hymen reconstructions? Rape-themed fashion collections? Don't tell Sheila Jeffreys these are signs of female liberation. Jeffreys, a revolutionary lesbian feminist, is pursuing her 30-odd-year mission to shift women out of their collective complacency. "Beauty And Misogyny" is her sixth book. Like the others, its central theme is an exploration of the use of sexuality by men to dominate women. Much of it is spent arguing that beauty practices - from make-up to breast implants - should be redefined as harmful cultural practices, rather than being seen as a liberating choice. [There are times radical feminists and conservatives share the same conclusions, although for very different reasons.]
I'm just getting used to cell phones that do almost everything but make telephone calls. Now we have sunglasses that play music and work with cell phones.
Two years ago South Africa looked a spent force in Rugby. Two years ago at the World Cup New Zealand looked a spent force. No-one would think that of either team now. The clash of the two tomorrow is shaping up to be the Rugby highlight of the year, after the damp squib of the Lions tour. The test of greatness will be which team can win on the other's home territory. Success in the TriNations this year may well be determined by the number of bonus points they can pick up. It's a bit strange that victory may go to the team which loses by the least rather than wins the most. But that's the modern game! Incidentally, for some insight into the amazing technicality of today's game, this article on scrummaging is a stopper. I wish my father - who was an All Black trialist hooker - were still alive to give me his insights into this.
An inquiry into problems with secondary school exams blames unstable leadership and poor communication at the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA). The second State Service Commission review of the education system said the leadership failures helped to create a lack of consistency in marks. It also said, following its investigation into NZQA and the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), that the authority tried to do too much too quickly.
As a consequence, the NZQA has bowed to public pressure to record failure on externally assessed NCEA results. Acting chief Karen Sewell said yesterday that changes were under way to ensure this year's examinations were sound. She confirmed that there would be "significant changes" in the longer term. In the short term, the board had agreed to make it clear on a result certificate when a pupil had failed a particular subject, by recording it as "not achieved". NZQA's decision last year to leave that information off results was criticised and drew complaints from employers. Failure in external assessment was recorded only on a website accessible to pupils.
Christchurch City councillors have ignored legal advice and will appeal against a High Court decision quashing their prostitution bylaw, leaving ratepayers to foot more legal bills. Although top law firm Simpson Grierson rated the appeal's chance of success at just 25 per cent, councillors yesterday voted nine to two in favour of appealing against Justice Panckhurst's decision removing the council's geographical controls on brothels.
The alienation felt by young blacks and Asians in the UK is not a result of any intolerance shown towards them, but of the endless tolerance of those who would allow everything and stand up for nothing. It is the excesses permitted by a culture spawned by the liberal Left that have produced a generation that feels rootless and hopeless. The young crave noble purposes as children need discipline; neither get much of them in modern Britain and the void is filled by disrespect, fecklessness, mindless nihilism or, worse, wicked militancy.
This is the world Britain has lost. Once, football crowds sang “Abide with Me” or “Bread of Heaven”; today they sing songs full of thoughtless blasphemies, obscenities, and thought-out sexual and racial abuse to upset their opponents. Regular attendance at Sunday School was a standard part of most people’s youth, and it was the place where standards of respectability were inculcated. Britain’s was a society with a remarkably low and falling incidence of violent and acquisitive crime, illegitimacy, and addiction to opiates. Public drunkenness was a problem, but it was gradually ceasing to be so; by the 1920s it had all but disappeared.
When civil society disintegrates, the state has to step in to do what character and virtues once did. In the UK, the government plans to introduce a national ID card, which is running into a lot of flak. Only yesterday the government's own data protection watchdog said the ID card scheme could turn Britain into a "surveillance society". Information Commissioner Richard Thomas condemned the project as "excessive and disproportionate", adding that it would allow civil servants to build a detailed picture of how every adult lives their lives.
Breast implants for 18-year-olds? Hymen reconstructions? Rape-themed fashion collections? Don't tell Sheila Jeffreys these are signs of female liberation. Jeffreys, a revolutionary lesbian feminist, is pursuing her 30-odd-year mission to shift women out of their collective complacency. "Beauty And Misogyny" is her sixth book. Like the others, its central theme is an exploration of the use of sexuality by men to dominate women. Much of it is spent arguing that beauty practices - from make-up to breast implants - should be redefined as harmful cultural practices, rather than being seen as a liberating choice. [There are times radical feminists and conservatives share the same conclusions, although for very different reasons.]
I'm just getting used to cell phones that do almost everything but make telephone calls. Now we have sunglasses that play music and work with cell phones.
Two years ago South Africa looked a spent force in Rugby. Two years ago at the World Cup New Zealand looked a spent force. No-one would think that of either team now. The clash of the two tomorrow is shaping up to be the Rugby highlight of the year, after the damp squib of the Lions tour. The test of greatness will be which team can win on the other's home territory. Success in the TriNations this year may well be determined by the number of bonus points they can pick up. It's a bit strange that victory may go to the team which loses by the least rather than wins the most. But that's the modern game! Incidentally, for some insight into the amazing technicality of today's game, this article on scrummaging is a stopper. I wish my father - who was an All Black trialist hooker - were still alive to give me his insights into this.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
A report into NCEA, due to be released tomorrow, is expected to bring changes to the secondary school assessment system. Officials at the State Services Commission have refused to reveal details of the report, but the NZ Herald understands it will prompt Education and State Services Minister Trevor Mallard into a series of alterations to improve standards-based assessment. A source told the Herald that the report was critical of agencies, including the Qualifications Authority, but supportive of NCEA as a concept and suggested ways to deal with variability in results.
Parliament is now calling for submissions on Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill. No time limit has yet been set (it will be after the election).
How journalism went bad: "Before the war a common source of the reporter was an energetic kid who ran newsroom errands for a few years before he was permitted to accompany the most glamorous character on the staff, the rough-tough, seen-it-all, blood-and-guts police reporter. ...Some of us on that long-ago paper had college educations but we learned to keep quiet about it; there was a suspicion that a degree turned men into sissies....As journalism was increasingly learned academically instead of vocationally, the great curse of the campus descended, namely the abstraction of the real. Reporters, regardless of their perspective or biases, became removed from their stories. Instead, they were merely 'educated' about them. And the news stopped being as real."
"Today we confront a problem which is the antithesis of the liberal tradition, and that is political correctness," says National MP Wayne Mapp. "Where liberalism encourages competing political ideas, political correctness, by law, language or conduct, seeks to suppress the expression of ideas. ... It is their goal to capture the institutions of the state and mould them to reflect their views. The fact that their views may not reflect majority views, or indeed are specifically opposed to majority views, is immaterial. It is the imposition of these views that matters. That is the fundamental problem with political correctness. Political correctness has three features. First, political correctness is a set of attitudes and beliefs that are divorced from mainstream values. Second, the politically correct person has a prescriptive view on how people should think and what they are permitted to discuss. Third, and most importantly, political correctness is embedded in public institutions, which have a legislative base, and which have coercive powers. It is this third aspect that gives political correctness its authority. Without this capture of power the views of the politically correct would simply be another view in the marketplace of ideas. The attitudes and values of the politically correct may well have had their origins in the civil rights and equality campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, but political correctness is not about protecting the fundamental rights that lie at the heart of these campaigns. It is about limiting or suppressing the way people are able to think and express their views. Political correctness runs counter to the basic freedoms of society, precisely because it is intended to limit the debate on issues of rights and freedoms."
New Zealand is close to a syphilis epidemic, says an Auckland doctor. Writing in New Zealand Doctor, Sunita Azariah, an Auckland Sexual Health Service physician, said there was evidence that the incidence of infectious syphilis was increasing. Last year's sexually transmitted infections surveillance report by the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Research indicated a 53 per cent increase in cases of infectious syphilis diagnosed in public sexual health clinics since 2003.
With at least a third of college students in Uganda making good on abstinence pledges and the AIDS rate in the African nation plummeting, those who oppose chastity education have hatched a strange new argument: efforts to prevent Ugandans from having sex outside marriage have been too successful. The contention is that young people are waiting too long to get married and have children, meaning the resulting population rate will not be able to sustain a successful economy. As a means to their end, anti-abstinence groups, including the US Agency for International Development, are pouring millions into Uganda to promote condom use. Steve Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, said the population-crisis argument is ludicrous. "Ugandan women are still having five, six, seven children. The birth rate is high. The death rate from AIDS is dropping because of
abstinence... it's not creating a population shortage in that country." The real problem, he added, is that many of Uganda's neighbors have not embraced the abstinence message. "You've got countries like South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia," he noted, "where the AIDS rate is so high that population growth has stopped."
Bad news for those who are holding off having children until they are older. Older fathers are up to five times more likely to have children with birth defects, according to a study in the US and Denmark. A 45-year-old man is almost three times more likely to father a Down Syndrome child than a man under 30.
Here's the next episode in the development of podcasting (home-produced audio and video). Former US vice-president Al Gore has launched a cable network, Current TV, with short, fast-paced programmes, or "pods", for internet-savvy viewers 18 to 34 years old. Billed by Gore as a TV outlet that encourages a "two-way conversation" with its audience, the network offers professionally produced segments and viewer-produced videos running from a few seconds to 15 minutes in length.
Parliament is now calling for submissions on Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill. No time limit has yet been set (it will be after the election).
How journalism went bad: "Before the war a common source of the reporter was an energetic kid who ran newsroom errands for a few years before he was permitted to accompany the most glamorous character on the staff, the rough-tough, seen-it-all, blood-and-guts police reporter. ...Some of us on that long-ago paper had college educations but we learned to keep quiet about it; there was a suspicion that a degree turned men into sissies....As journalism was increasingly learned academically instead of vocationally, the great curse of the campus descended, namely the abstraction of the real. Reporters, regardless of their perspective or biases, became removed from their stories. Instead, they were merely 'educated' about them. And the news stopped being as real."
"Today we confront a problem which is the antithesis of the liberal tradition, and that is political correctness," says National MP Wayne Mapp. "Where liberalism encourages competing political ideas, political correctness, by law, language or conduct, seeks to suppress the expression of ideas. ... It is their goal to capture the institutions of the state and mould them to reflect their views. The fact that their views may not reflect majority views, or indeed are specifically opposed to majority views, is immaterial. It is the imposition of these views that matters. That is the fundamental problem with political correctness. Political correctness has three features. First, political correctness is a set of attitudes and beliefs that are divorced from mainstream values. Second, the politically correct person has a prescriptive view on how people should think and what they are permitted to discuss. Third, and most importantly, political correctness is embedded in public institutions, which have a legislative base, and which have coercive powers. It is this third aspect that gives political correctness its authority. Without this capture of power the views of the politically correct would simply be another view in the marketplace of ideas. The attitudes and values of the politically correct may well have had their origins in the civil rights and equality campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, but political correctness is not about protecting the fundamental rights that lie at the heart of these campaigns. It is about limiting or suppressing the way people are able to think and express their views. Political correctness runs counter to the basic freedoms of society, precisely because it is intended to limit the debate on issues of rights and freedoms."
New Zealand is close to a syphilis epidemic, says an Auckland doctor. Writing in New Zealand Doctor, Sunita Azariah, an Auckland Sexual Health Service physician, said there was evidence that the incidence of infectious syphilis was increasing. Last year's sexually transmitted infections surveillance report by the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Research indicated a 53 per cent increase in cases of infectious syphilis diagnosed in public sexual health clinics since 2003.
With at least a third of college students in Uganda making good on abstinence pledges and the AIDS rate in the African nation plummeting, those who oppose chastity education have hatched a strange new argument: efforts to prevent Ugandans from having sex outside marriage have been too successful. The contention is that young people are waiting too long to get married and have children, meaning the resulting population rate will not be able to sustain a successful economy. As a means to their end, anti-abstinence groups, including the US Agency for International Development, are pouring millions into Uganda to promote condom use. Steve Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, said the population-crisis argument is ludicrous. "Ugandan women are still having five, six, seven children. The birth rate is high. The death rate from AIDS is dropping because of
abstinence... it's not creating a population shortage in that country." The real problem, he added, is that many of Uganda's neighbors have not embraced the abstinence message. "You've got countries like South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia," he noted, "where the AIDS rate is so high that population growth has stopped."
Bad news for those who are holding off having children until they are older. Older fathers are up to five times more likely to have children with birth defects, according to a study in the US and Denmark. A 45-year-old man is almost three times more likely to father a Down Syndrome child than a man under 30.
Here's the next episode in the development of podcasting (home-produced audio and video). Former US vice-president Al Gore has launched a cable network, Current TV, with short, fast-paced programmes, or "pods", for internet-savvy viewers 18 to 34 years old. Billed by Gore as a TV outlet that encourages a "two-way conversation" with its audience, the network offers professionally produced segments and viewer-produced videos running from a few seconds to 15 minutes in length.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Muslims must stop the self-deception which claims that Islam is 100% peace. They must with honesty recognise the violence that has existed in their history in the same way as Christians have had to do, says Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. This piece is an extensive analysis of what lies behind the current bombing campaigns in Britain.
Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics — the nation's two largest religious blocs — have a relationship that's been marked in the past by hostility and tension. But now, almost 500 years after Martin Luther, one of the top US evangelical thinkers has co-authored a book that finds an increasingly warm relationship between Catholics and evangelicals. "Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism" by Mark A. Noll and Carolyn Nystrom argues that not only on contemporary political issues such as abortion but also on matters of spirituality Catholics and the Protestant conservatives have ever more in common. Summarizing the situation, Noll — a historian at Wheaton College in Illinois — said in an interview that he sees "quite serious differences, but not differences of life and death as they were regarded for at least four centuries."
Young gay men are five times more likely to suffer mental health problems than straight men, a long-running Christchurch study shows. The 27-year-long Christchurch Health and Development Study found homosexual activity and orientation was linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, illegal drug use and suicidal thoughts. The rate of mental health problems in young lesbians is double that of exclusively heterosexual women. Study director professor David Fergusson, of the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said the findings added to a growing body of research supporting the link. Reasons for the increased risk had not been determined, he said. "The gay, lesbian and bisexual populations are fairly insistent that it's due to homophobia, because of all the pressures, adversities and discrimination they experience," he said. The fact gay men were most at risk and also faced more discrimination supported that view, Fergusson said. It was also possible, however, that other lifestyle factors contributed. [While homosexuals have been subject to intimidation in NZ in the past, that is barely true today. And in parts of America where homosexuals have been accepted for decades - such as San Francisco - the rate of mental illness is still higher among that community. But homosexuals don't want to accept that their risky lifestyle has emotional consequences.]
The US abortion rate is at its lowest since 1974, the year following Roe v. Wade. But still, nearly half of all US pregnancies are "unwanted" according to the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute. The decrease in abortions is due to many factors, but two of them, according to Julie Parton, director of the Pregnancy Resource Ministry at Focus on the Family, are technology and people's stories. "Advances in technology like ultrasound and 4D ultrasound make it clear that life begins at conception," she said. "That gives people pause when they see a 10-week-old baby on the monitor and can recognize who it looks like. Also, there is an increase in the numbers of post-abortive
individuals -- both men and women. Their stories have told this generation what it's like to have gone through an abortion. The post-modern generation relates to stories." Half the women who visit a pregnancy resource center choose not to abort after receiving counseling. When they see an ultrasound image of their baby, that number jumps to 80 percent or more. The Guttmacher Web site cites three reasons for an abortion: "Three-quarters say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about two-thirds say they cannot afford a child; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner." [This is true of NZ as well, except that we pretend that an abortion is protecting the health of the mother - rubbish; it's all about selfish choice.]
There has been much media discussion over Jane, the wife of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. In particular, it has focused on her involvement with the group Feminists for Life. So who are they? Feminists for Life goes beyond mainstream pro-life groups on issues like welfare reform that don't directly involve abortion, says Wendy Wright, senior policy director for Concerned Women for America. "They join with more modern feminists groups on other issues like violence against women and child support and some of these issues that the pro-life movement doesn't get involved in," says Cathy Cleaver Ruse, senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council.
Is this what today's technologically equipped man looks like? Is he controlling his life, or are his gadgets controlling him?
Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics — the nation's two largest religious blocs — have a relationship that's been marked in the past by hostility and tension. But now, almost 500 years after Martin Luther, one of the top US evangelical thinkers has co-authored a book that finds an increasingly warm relationship between Catholics and evangelicals. "Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism" by Mark A. Noll and Carolyn Nystrom argues that not only on contemporary political issues such as abortion but also on matters of spirituality Catholics and the Protestant conservatives have ever more in common. Summarizing the situation, Noll — a historian at Wheaton College in Illinois — said in an interview that he sees "quite serious differences, but not differences of life and death as they were regarded for at least four centuries."
Young gay men are five times more likely to suffer mental health problems than straight men, a long-running Christchurch study shows. The 27-year-long Christchurch Health and Development Study found homosexual activity and orientation was linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, illegal drug use and suicidal thoughts. The rate of mental health problems in young lesbians is double that of exclusively heterosexual women. Study director professor David Fergusson, of the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said the findings added to a growing body of research supporting the link. Reasons for the increased risk had not been determined, he said. "The gay, lesbian and bisexual populations are fairly insistent that it's due to homophobia, because of all the pressures, adversities and discrimination they experience," he said. The fact gay men were most at risk and also faced more discrimination supported that view, Fergusson said. It was also possible, however, that other lifestyle factors contributed. [While homosexuals have been subject to intimidation in NZ in the past, that is barely true today. And in parts of America where homosexuals have been accepted for decades - such as San Francisco - the rate of mental illness is still higher among that community. But homosexuals don't want to accept that their risky lifestyle has emotional consequences.]
The US abortion rate is at its lowest since 1974, the year following Roe v. Wade. But still, nearly half of all US pregnancies are "unwanted" according to the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute. The decrease in abortions is due to many factors, but two of them, according to Julie Parton, director of the Pregnancy Resource Ministry at Focus on the Family, are technology and people's stories. "Advances in technology like ultrasound and 4D ultrasound make it clear that life begins at conception," she said. "That gives people pause when they see a 10-week-old baby on the monitor and can recognize who it looks like. Also, there is an increase in the numbers of post-abortive
individuals -- both men and women. Their stories have told this generation what it's like to have gone through an abortion. The post-modern generation relates to stories." Half the women who visit a pregnancy resource center choose not to abort after receiving counseling. When they see an ultrasound image of their baby, that number jumps to 80 percent or more. The Guttmacher Web site cites three reasons for an abortion: "Three-quarters say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about two-thirds say they cannot afford a child; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner." [This is true of NZ as well, except that we pretend that an abortion is protecting the health of the mother - rubbish; it's all about selfish choice.]
There has been much media discussion over Jane, the wife of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. In particular, it has focused on her involvement with the group Feminists for Life. So who are they? Feminists for Life goes beyond mainstream pro-life groups on issues like welfare reform that don't directly involve abortion, says Wendy Wright, senior policy director for Concerned Women for America. "They join with more modern feminists groups on other issues like violence against women and child support and some of these issues that the pro-life movement doesn't get involved in," says Cathy Cleaver Ruse, senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council.
Is this what today's technologically equipped man looks like? Is he controlling his life, or are his gadgets controlling him?
Monday, August 01, 2005
The NZ Medical Association has decided to continue its official opposition to euthanasia, despite its UK counterpart caving in. “The NZMA concurs with the policy of the World Medical Association which opposes euthanasia,” says NZMA chairman, Dr Ross Boswell.
An Auckland clinic has been given the go-ahead to begin screening embryos for parents wanting to give birth to babies without genetic disorders. The screening technology - pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - will allow parents who are at risk of passing on certain inherited diseases to choose a "healthy" embryo to start a pregnancy. The long-awaited move has been welcomed by parents keen to use the service, but opponents fear it is the start of a slippery slope towards "designer babies" and discrimination against those with disabilities.
What long-term sociological changes will be wrought by the impact of the student loan scheme? Nearly 450,000 New Zealanders have some type of student debt - and between them they owe more than $6.6 billion. Almost 600 people have debt above $100,000 - a 68 per cent increase from the same time last year. The average level of debt is $14,989, almost a $1000 rise since June last year. The concern is that high levels of debt can force social change and unseen consequences. Almost half of first-year doctors are putting off having children as they struggle to repay an average debt of $65,000, according to one report. More than 90 per cent of teachers graduate in debt, says another. One in three of last year's graduates planned to leave New Zealand almost as soon as he or she removed cap and gown, a survey revealed last December.
Church primary schools increase learning by as much as ten per cent, a new UK report says. A study published in the National Institute Economic Review yesterday found that church primary school pupils are a year ahead of their peers in state schools. Least able children benefit still more and receive an 18-month head start on their contemporaries. The findings come against some recent calls to abolish faith schools to create more harmony between different religious communities. Tony Blair, however, this week rejected the calls, saying that faith-based schools provide a "strong ethos and values" and do not teach children to "look at children of other faiths in a bad way".
At last, someone has come out with a reasoned response to the nonsense Lloyd Geering has been allowed to get away with almost daily in the media lately. Thank you, Brian Brandon:
"How can we understand the growth of secular belief and values in Western and New Zealand society? Lloyd Geering would have us believe that humanism, naturalism and our secular society are an outgrowth of Christianity itself, and worthy successors of it. He argues that just as Christianity emerged out of Judaism, so also secularism has arisen out of Christianity. He promotes a "religion without God" and claims a "supernatural, controlling, personal being" is fading from human consciousness. It takes a lot of twisted logic to come to this conclusion. Secularism has been an outgrowth of Christianity only in the sense that Christian faith has won for us freedom of belief and given us the basis for scientific inquiry. The 16th century European Reformation won for society new freedoms for individual belief. The rise of science in the 18th century, strongly fostered by Christian scientists, has won new freedoms to understand and use the resources God has given us on Earth. But if science and technology and the rise of a prosperous society have led people to leave God out, then surely our secularism is merely a new idolatry of bondage to material things and to our own needs... If there is no personal God who created us and who gives us our purpose, then all we are is a chance collection of chemicals who, therefore, don't matter in any ultimate scheme of things. There are no human rights if there is no ultimate source of what is right and wrong in the universe. Neither, if we live in a purely naturalistic world, are there any ultimate freedoms we can claim, because logically in a closed universe the laws of nature will determine our behaviour. Humanism and secularism are a terrible form of slavery."
The traditional terms of "spinsters" and "bachelors will cease to be used on marriage registers and certificates from December when the UK's new Civil Partnership Act comes into effect. The marriage laws in England and Wales will be revised to become consistent with the new Act and everyone getting married, whether gay, straight or divorced will be referred to as "single". The Times reports that the use of a single term is likely to be seen by some clergy as helping to undermine the institution of marriage. A Church of England spokesman said: "The words bachelor or spinster have never been part of the wording of banns, but many clergy customarily use them and will no doubt continue to."
Winston Peters's constant haranguing on immigration almost totally shuts down a reasoned and overdue debate on what we expect of people coming to live in this country. In England and the US, the debate has been badly clouded by terrorist fears. In either case, clear discussion is the loser. In a lecture at the Heritage Foundation, William E. Simon makes some important points that need to be faced: "In liberal circles, the [immigration] issue is discussed as one more phase in the movement for expanding liberty and diversity, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. And for my friends in conservative circles, the issue is hotly debated as a contest between "law-and-order conservatives," concerned only with national security and control of our borders, and "pro-growth business conservatives," concerned only with the chronic labor shortage--again, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. With little or no discussion of what it means to be an American, this narrow framing of the debate completely ignores the most important issue of all: the national implications of immigration without assimilation.
The Pentagon has released a long-awaited report, “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” — a document examining Chinese current and future military strategy. Tension between the United States and Europe over arms sales to China and a string of Chinese threats to use force (even nuclear weapons) in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan strait have raised concerns about China’s military capabilities and intentions.
The Heritage Foundation says that unless deterred by stronger reactions from the United States and Taiwan, China’s hardline military spokesmen will succeed in convincing Beijing’s more moderate domestic and social policy leaders that there will be no consequence to continued military expansion. A close reading of the report leaves no doubt that China’s “ambitious” weapons modernization and doctrinal reforms are aimed at promoting vast increases in its “comprehensive national power.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described this phenomenon in a February 2000 article: "…China is not a “status quo” power but one that would like to alter Asia’s balance of power in its own favor. That alone makes it a strategic competitor, not the “strategic partner” the Clinton administration once called it. Add to this China’s record of cooperation with Iran and Pakistan in the proliferation of ballistic-missile technology, and the security problem is obvious. China will do what it can to enhance its position, whether by stealing nuclear secrets or by trying to intimidate Taiwan."
Saturday marked the 200th birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the fathers of the thinking behind civil society. Alexis de Tocqueville championed liberty and democracy, and once observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. His major work was written following a tour of America at a relatively young age, and is still relevant. This Wall Street Journal piece is worth reading, in case you missed it.
An Auckland clinic has been given the go-ahead to begin screening embryos for parents wanting to give birth to babies without genetic disorders. The screening technology - pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - will allow parents who are at risk of passing on certain inherited diseases to choose a "healthy" embryo to start a pregnancy. The long-awaited move has been welcomed by parents keen to use the service, but opponents fear it is the start of a slippery slope towards "designer babies" and discrimination against those with disabilities.
What long-term sociological changes will be wrought by the impact of the student loan scheme? Nearly 450,000 New Zealanders have some type of student debt - and between them they owe more than $6.6 billion. Almost 600 people have debt above $100,000 - a 68 per cent increase from the same time last year. The average level of debt is $14,989, almost a $1000 rise since June last year. The concern is that high levels of debt can force social change and unseen consequences. Almost half of first-year doctors are putting off having children as they struggle to repay an average debt of $65,000, according to one report. More than 90 per cent of teachers graduate in debt, says another. One in three of last year's graduates planned to leave New Zealand almost as soon as he or she removed cap and gown, a survey revealed last December.
Church primary schools increase learning by as much as ten per cent, a new UK report says. A study published in the National Institute Economic Review yesterday found that church primary school pupils are a year ahead of their peers in state schools. Least able children benefit still more and receive an 18-month head start on their contemporaries. The findings come against some recent calls to abolish faith schools to create more harmony between different religious communities. Tony Blair, however, this week rejected the calls, saying that faith-based schools provide a "strong ethos and values" and do not teach children to "look at children of other faiths in a bad way".
At last, someone has come out with a reasoned response to the nonsense Lloyd Geering has been allowed to get away with almost daily in the media lately. Thank you, Brian Brandon:
"How can we understand the growth of secular belief and values in Western and New Zealand society? Lloyd Geering would have us believe that humanism, naturalism and our secular society are an outgrowth of Christianity itself, and worthy successors of it. He argues that just as Christianity emerged out of Judaism, so also secularism has arisen out of Christianity. He promotes a "religion without God" and claims a "supernatural, controlling, personal being" is fading from human consciousness. It takes a lot of twisted logic to come to this conclusion. Secularism has been an outgrowth of Christianity only in the sense that Christian faith has won for us freedom of belief and given us the basis for scientific inquiry. The 16th century European Reformation won for society new freedoms for individual belief. The rise of science in the 18th century, strongly fostered by Christian scientists, has won new freedoms to understand and use the resources God has given us on Earth. But if science and technology and the rise of a prosperous society have led people to leave God out, then surely our secularism is merely a new idolatry of bondage to material things and to our own needs... If there is no personal God who created us and who gives us our purpose, then all we are is a chance collection of chemicals who, therefore, don't matter in any ultimate scheme of things. There are no human rights if there is no ultimate source of what is right and wrong in the universe. Neither, if we live in a purely naturalistic world, are there any ultimate freedoms we can claim, because logically in a closed universe the laws of nature will determine our behaviour. Humanism and secularism are a terrible form of slavery."
The traditional terms of "spinsters" and "bachelors will cease to be used on marriage registers and certificates from December when the UK's new Civil Partnership Act comes into effect. The marriage laws in England and Wales will be revised to become consistent with the new Act and everyone getting married, whether gay, straight or divorced will be referred to as "single". The Times reports that the use of a single term is likely to be seen by some clergy as helping to undermine the institution of marriage. A Church of England spokesman said: "The words bachelor or spinster have never been part of the wording of banns, but many clergy customarily use them and will no doubt continue to."
Winston Peters's constant haranguing on immigration almost totally shuts down a reasoned and overdue debate on what we expect of people coming to live in this country. In England and the US, the debate has been badly clouded by terrorist fears. In either case, clear discussion is the loser. In a lecture at the Heritage Foundation, William E. Simon makes some important points that need to be faced: "In liberal circles, the [immigration] issue is discussed as one more phase in the movement for expanding liberty and diversity, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. And for my friends in conservative circles, the issue is hotly debated as a contest between "law-and-order conservatives," concerned only with national security and control of our borders, and "pro-growth business conservatives," concerned only with the chronic labor shortage--again, with no attention to issues of national identity and unity. With little or no discussion of what it means to be an American, this narrow framing of the debate completely ignores the most important issue of all: the national implications of immigration without assimilation.
The Pentagon has released a long-awaited report, “The Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” — a document examining Chinese current and future military strategy. Tension between the United States and Europe over arms sales to China and a string of Chinese threats to use force (even nuclear weapons) in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan strait have raised concerns about China’s military capabilities and intentions.
The Heritage Foundation says that unless deterred by stronger reactions from the United States and Taiwan, China’s hardline military spokesmen will succeed in convincing Beijing’s more moderate domestic and social policy leaders that there will be no consequence to continued military expansion. A close reading of the report leaves no doubt that China’s “ambitious” weapons modernization and doctrinal reforms are aimed at promoting vast increases in its “comprehensive national power.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described this phenomenon in a February 2000 article: "…China is not a “status quo” power but one that would like to alter Asia’s balance of power in its own favor. That alone makes it a strategic competitor, not the “strategic partner” the Clinton administration once called it. Add to this China’s record of cooperation with Iran and Pakistan in the proliferation of ballistic-missile technology, and the security problem is obvious. China will do what it can to enhance its position, whether by stealing nuclear secrets or by trying to intimidate Taiwan."
Saturday marked the 200th birthday of Alexis de Tocqueville, one of the fathers of the thinking behind civil society. Alexis de Tocqueville championed liberty and democracy, and once observed that it is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. His major work was written following a tour of America at a relatively young age, and is still relevant. This Wall Street Journal piece is worth reading, in case you missed it.
