Friday, October 14, 2005
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last night sensationally vowed to end the tradition of being presumed innocent until found guilty. The PM pledged to turn the nation’s criminal justice system on its head and hand police sweeping new powers. He promised fixed penalty notices for ANY crime — forcing suspects to prove their innocence in court. Mr Blair admitted it was a “watershed” moment in legal history. He said in Downing Street: “It’s summary justice. It’s tough but in my judgment the only way to deal with it.”
A revolutionary idea to be discussed this week at the UN World Summit in New York City calls for a radical change in the way sovereignty has been perceived for centuries. Instead of viewing nations as independent agents, immune to interference in their internal affairs, the new definition of sovereignty treats it as conditional: a nation can maintain its sovereignty only if it meets its responsibilities to its citizens and the international community. Thus a government that does not protect its people from ethnic cleansing, of the kind that occurred in Kosovo and Rwanda, or from mass starvation as found in Niger, would be considered a government that has forfeited its right to independence. The UN would be fully entitled to authorize an intervention in the internal affairs of that nation, a major departure from the Charter of the UN, which declares, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the jurisdiction of any state.”
Hundreds of Christians have protested outside Britain's Parliament against a proposed law which would ban incitement to religious hatred. The demonstration by a coalition of groups- and also including members of the National Secular Society - was timed to coincide with the second reading of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the Lords. Opponents say it will damage freedom of speech and worsen community relations. Home Secretary Charles Clarke says it will only affect "extreme behaviour" and not prevent poking fun at religion. [Similar hate speech legislation in Victoria, Australia, ended in the conviction of two pastors for criticising Islam.]
And Britain's House of Lords has also been debating whether doctors should be allowed to help some terminally-ill people to die. Anglican bishops are among the most fierce opponents of the measure, which is set to be contained in a private member's bill. Lord Joffe said his bill would make it legal for doctors to prescribe drugs that a terminally-ill person could take to end his or her own life.
A Swedish man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple must pay child support for the three children he fathered, Sweden's Supreme Court has ruled. The man, now 39, donated his sperm to the couple in the early 1990s. Three sons were born during the years 1992-1996. The man told the court that he and the women had agreed that he would play no role in the boys' childrearing and that the two women would be their parents. Shortly after he signed the document, the two women separated and the biological mother demanded that the man pay child support.
A woman firmly antagonistic to marriage surprised herself by getting married - and grew to realise it was in fact the better option. "We live in such speedy times that even the period between first meeting and eventual marrying has contracted from an average three-and-a-half years in the 1980s to 18 months today. This must mean that I'm slightly out of sync with the times for in my case that interval was 22 years."
Lindsay Mitchell, a campaigner against the DPB, points out some close parallels between the people of New Orleans left behind following Hurricane Katrina and the welfare class in New Zealand. "We cannot avoid the fact that unmarried or unpartnered women with children are the poorest among us... [A] US report asks whether the poverty of blacks is the result of racism and a legacy of slavery. The answer is no. It is the result of welfare destroying the family, "by replacing the adult male as the father figure and main provider in the family and then rewarding illegitimacy with a bigger cheque". Setting aside the legacy of slavery, the same question could be posed here. The answer remains the same. The safeguards from poverty are education and a stable relationship. These are as important and as available to Maori and Pacific people as they are to any other group.
A report by NZ's new Families Commission, published yesterday, has found that parents who have been on parenting courses have found them useful - but hard to find.
Increasing computer use, coupled with hours of text messaging and playing handheld games, may be contributing to an epidemic of short-sightedness among teenagers, say eye experts.
A revolutionary idea to be discussed this week at the UN World Summit in New York City calls for a radical change in the way sovereignty has been perceived for centuries. Instead of viewing nations as independent agents, immune to interference in their internal affairs, the new definition of sovereignty treats it as conditional: a nation can maintain its sovereignty only if it meets its responsibilities to its citizens and the international community. Thus a government that does not protect its people from ethnic cleansing, of the kind that occurred in Kosovo and Rwanda, or from mass starvation as found in Niger, would be considered a government that has forfeited its right to independence. The UN would be fully entitled to authorize an intervention in the internal affairs of that nation, a major departure from the Charter of the UN, which declares, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the jurisdiction of any state.”
Hundreds of Christians have protested outside Britain's Parliament against a proposed law which would ban incitement to religious hatred. The demonstration by a coalition of groups- and also including members of the National Secular Society - was timed to coincide with the second reading of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill in the Lords. Opponents say it will damage freedom of speech and worsen community relations. Home Secretary Charles Clarke says it will only affect "extreme behaviour" and not prevent poking fun at religion. [Similar hate speech legislation in Victoria, Australia, ended in the conviction of two pastors for criticising Islam.]
And Britain's House of Lords has also been debating whether doctors should be allowed to help some terminally-ill people to die. Anglican bishops are among the most fierce opponents of the measure, which is set to be contained in a private member's bill. Lord Joffe said his bill would make it legal for doctors to prescribe drugs that a terminally-ill person could take to end his or her own life.
A Swedish man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple must pay child support for the three children he fathered, Sweden's Supreme Court has ruled. The man, now 39, donated his sperm to the couple in the early 1990s. Three sons were born during the years 1992-1996. The man told the court that he and the women had agreed that he would play no role in the boys' childrearing and that the two women would be their parents. Shortly after he signed the document, the two women separated and the biological mother demanded that the man pay child support.
A woman firmly antagonistic to marriage surprised herself by getting married - and grew to realise it was in fact the better option. "We live in such speedy times that even the period between first meeting and eventual marrying has contracted from an average three-and-a-half years in the 1980s to 18 months today. This must mean that I'm slightly out of sync with the times for in my case that interval was 22 years."
Lindsay Mitchell, a campaigner against the DPB, points out some close parallels between the people of New Orleans left behind following Hurricane Katrina and the welfare class in New Zealand. "We cannot avoid the fact that unmarried or unpartnered women with children are the poorest among us... [A] US report asks whether the poverty of blacks is the result of racism and a legacy of slavery. The answer is no. It is the result of welfare destroying the family, "by replacing the adult male as the father figure and main provider in the family and then rewarding illegitimacy with a bigger cheque". Setting aside the legacy of slavery, the same question could be posed here. The answer remains the same. The safeguards from poverty are education and a stable relationship. These are as important and as available to Maori and Pacific people as they are to any other group.
A report by NZ's new Families Commission, published yesterday, has found that parents who have been on parenting courses have found them useful - but hard to find.
Increasing computer use, coupled with hours of text messaging and playing handheld games, may be contributing to an epidemic of short-sightedness among teenagers, say eye experts.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
More than one pupil in every 10 is absent from school each day, research released by the Ministry of Education shows. The survey showed overall absence of 11 per cent, including a truancy rate of 3 per cent. Absences for boys and girls were similar but boys at co-educational schools had a higher overall absence rate than their counterparts in single sex schools. Maori and Pacific Islands students had double the truancy rate of New Zealand European and Asian students, the report said.
Is all that money being spent on school computers wasted? "Recent research indicates that students who frequently use computers perform worse academically than those who use them rarely or not at all... There have been no advances (in education) over the past decade that can be cofidently attributed to broader access to computers." Not only that, but computers are having a disturbing effect on socialisation: "Children learn the fragility of flowers by touching their petals. They learn to cooperate by organizing their own games. The computer cannot simulate the physical and emotional nuances of resolving a dispute during kickball, or the creativity of inventing new rhymes to the rhythm of jumping rope. These full-bodied, often deeply heartfelt experiences educate not just the intellect but also the soul of the child."
The more we go down the road of multiculturalism, the more we open the door for abuses to be condoned in the name of "culture". Stephen Hagan documents how the courts have condoned such abuses in Australia.
The majority of the Arab world thinks that Arab leaders are corrupt and cause destabilization in the region, according to a recent poll. The poll also showed that most Arabs want democratic reforms.
To no one's surprise, the Dutch government has decided to endorse guidelines for involuntary euthanasia of infants. Under the so-called Groningen protocol, euthanasia will be allowed when a child is terminally ill with no hope of recovery and suffering great pain, when two doctors agree that the case is hopeless and when the parents consent. The Dutch Parliament will discuss the guidelines but implementing the new policy will not require a vote or changes to the existing law.
After five years, Queensland's fledgling legal brothel sector has failed to bring illegal prostitution in from the cold. According to a government-initiated review by the Crime and Misconduct Commission, illegal prostitution continues "unabated" in Queensland with illegal prostitution making up 75 per cent of the sex trade. The report, Regulating Prostitution (pdf file 678KB), details failures in the health checking system for workers, a botched exit program to assist women out of the industry, and a blossoming illegal escort sector. All of the above was supposed to be fixed or curbed by the Prostitution Act, 1999.
Who will deliver our grandchildren? Cerebral palsy litigation is crippling the profession of obstetrics, argue four doctors in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although it has never been safer to have a baby in the US, three-quarter of all obstetricians have had to deal with some form of litigation, mostly for having allegedly caused cerebral palsy. However the doctors claim that the notion that CP is caused by oxygen deprivation during delivery is based on outdated science. As a result, "litigation fears and costs now dominate the reasons for obstetricians avoiding or retiring from obstetric practice".
Microsoft has warned Windows users of three new "critical" security flaws in its software. The flaws could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer. The world's largest software maker issued patches to fix the problems as part of its monthly security bulletin. The problems mainly affect the Windows operating system and Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Computer security experts urged users to download and install the patches, which are available at www.microsoft.com/security.
The Ig Nobel Awards are a highlight of the scientific year. Yeah, right!
This year's batch highlighting the weird and downright absurd includes a kiwi winner. Massey University's James Watson was presented with the 2005 Agricultural History Ig Nobel prize at the 15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theatre on Thursday night. This prestigious award was made in recognition of his paper published in Agricultural History "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming between the World Wars".
Australia also punched above its weight in the awards taking the Biology prize for a study on the smell of stressed frogs and the Physics prize for studying a glob of tar dropping through a funnel since 1927. The internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria took the Literature award for their creative writing which has introduced to the world a rich cast of characters including General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others.
The Peace prize went to English academics who studied the brainwaves of a locust which was forced to watch Star Wars, while the Nutrition prize went to Dr Yoshiro Nakamats of Japan who had photographed and analysed every meal he had eaten in the last 34 years.
Calculations on the pressure buildup in a shitting penguin won the Fluid Dynamics prize for a group of European scientists while American cognoscentiae took the remaining awards: the alarm clock that runs away and hides taking the Economics gong; a study answering the age old question of whether people can swim faster in water or syrup took the Chemistry prize; and the prize in Medicine for the invention artificial testicals for dogs.
Is all that money being spent on school computers wasted? "Recent research indicates that students who frequently use computers perform worse academically than those who use them rarely or not at all... There have been no advances (in education) over the past decade that can be cofidently attributed to broader access to computers." Not only that, but computers are having a disturbing effect on socialisation: "Children learn the fragility of flowers by touching their petals. They learn to cooperate by organizing their own games. The computer cannot simulate the physical and emotional nuances of resolving a dispute during kickball, or the creativity of inventing new rhymes to the rhythm of jumping rope. These full-bodied, often deeply heartfelt experiences educate not just the intellect but also the soul of the child."
The more we go down the road of multiculturalism, the more we open the door for abuses to be condoned in the name of "culture". Stephen Hagan documents how the courts have condoned such abuses in Australia.
The majority of the Arab world thinks that Arab leaders are corrupt and cause destabilization in the region, according to a recent poll. The poll also showed that most Arabs want democratic reforms.
To no one's surprise, the Dutch government has decided to endorse guidelines for involuntary euthanasia of infants. Under the so-called Groningen protocol, euthanasia will be allowed when a child is terminally ill with no hope of recovery and suffering great pain, when two doctors agree that the case is hopeless and when the parents consent. The Dutch Parliament will discuss the guidelines but implementing the new policy will not require a vote or changes to the existing law.
After five years, Queensland's fledgling legal brothel sector has failed to bring illegal prostitution in from the cold. According to a government-initiated review by the Crime and Misconduct Commission, illegal prostitution continues "unabated" in Queensland with illegal prostitution making up 75 per cent of the sex trade. The report, Regulating Prostitution (pdf file 678KB), details failures in the health checking system for workers, a botched exit program to assist women out of the industry, and a blossoming illegal escort sector. All of the above was supposed to be fixed or curbed by the Prostitution Act, 1999.
Who will deliver our grandchildren? Cerebral palsy litigation is crippling the profession of obstetrics, argue four doctors in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although it has never been safer to have a baby in the US, three-quarter of all obstetricians have had to deal with some form of litigation, mostly for having allegedly caused cerebral palsy. However the doctors claim that the notion that CP is caused by oxygen deprivation during delivery is based on outdated science. As a result, "litigation fears and costs now dominate the reasons for obstetricians avoiding or retiring from obstetric practice".
Microsoft has warned Windows users of three new "critical" security flaws in its software. The flaws could allow attackers to take complete control of a computer. The world's largest software maker issued patches to fix the problems as part of its monthly security bulletin. The problems mainly affect the Windows operating system and Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Computer security experts urged users to download and install the patches, which are available at www.microsoft.com/security.
The Ig Nobel Awards are a highlight of the scientific year. Yeah, right!
This year's batch highlighting the weird and downright absurd includes a kiwi winner. Massey University's James Watson was presented with the 2005 Agricultural History Ig Nobel prize at the 15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theatre on Thursday night. This prestigious award was made in recognition of his paper published in Agricultural History "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming between the World Wars".
Australia also punched above its weight in the awards taking the Biology prize for a study on the smell of stressed frogs and the Physics prize for studying a glob of tar dropping through a funnel since 1927. The internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria took the Literature award for their creative writing which has introduced to the world a rich cast of characters including General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others.
The Peace prize went to English academics who studied the brainwaves of a locust which was forced to watch Star Wars, while the Nutrition prize went to Dr Yoshiro Nakamats of Japan who had photographed and analysed every meal he had eaten in the last 34 years.
Calculations on the pressure buildup in a shitting penguin won the Fluid Dynamics prize for a group of European scientists while American cognoscentiae took the remaining awards: the alarm clock that runs away and hides taking the Economics gong; a study answering the age old question of whether people can swim faster in water or syrup took the Chemistry prize; and the prize in Medicine for the invention artificial testicals for dogs.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
I did something perverse today - I followed instructions.
The full-page advert on the back page of this week's Listener said "Don't read this advertisement". So I didn't.
No doubt the advertiser had hoped that my curiosity would be sufficiently piqued that I would take a tiny peek out of the corner of my eye (while no-one was watching).
But I didn't. And so I can't even tell you who the advertiser was.
Funny old world when doing what you are asked is actually the last intention of the person making the request.
Mind you, I was guilty of employing reverse psychology on my children on numerous occasions. But now I'm perverse.
The full-page advert on the back page of this week's Listener said "Don't read this advertisement". So I didn't.
No doubt the advertiser had hoped that my curiosity would be sufficiently piqued that I would take a tiny peek out of the corner of my eye (while no-one was watching).
But I didn't. And so I can't even tell you who the advertiser was.
Funny old world when doing what you are asked is actually the last intention of the person making the request.
Mind you, I was guilty of employing reverse psychology on my children on numerous occasions. But now I'm perverse.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Read the following and weep at what is likely to happen in a very confused school near you any time now:
"Toilets and changing rooms are reported to be one of the main areas of abuse, harassment, intimidation and discomfort for gay, transgender, lesbian, intersex and bisexual students. All students must be able to access a single unisex cubicle to avoid such harassment. GLBTI students must be able to choose which toilet they use however. If a gay student still wishes to use the male toilets he must be able to do so safely. A transgender or intersex student should be able to safely utilise the facility that corresponds with their gender orientation.... The same must be the case for changing rooms.... Schools need to have uniform options that allow people to wear the uniform in which they feel comfortable. All students must be entitled to wear pants, skirts or shorts."
The above was drafted in connivance with the secondary teachers union (PPTA) by Safety in Schools for Queers (SS4Q), a national organisation, established at a conference of 190 youth, students, teachers, counsellors and health professionals from all over the country in June 2005. The conference was a collaborative effort of the Human Rights Commission, the PPTA, the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, Out There, the Family Planning Association, Rainbow Youth and a number of individuals from the GLBTI community.
Does anyone have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and say that this politically correct nonsense will ultimately be more devastating than the alleged harassment? If there is harassment, it is wrong. But you don't correct one wrong by perpetrating an even bigger one.
Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, ground-breaking research suggests. Many Maori, from children to kaumatua, use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington. [Dare we say that cannabis use might be behind a lot of Maori over-representation in a wide range of social statistics? In which case, all that government funding to close the gaps is aiming at the wrong target.]
Tony Blair has decided to back new nuclear power stations, which would be built on the sites of existing plants and presented to the public and his party as a job-creating answer to climate change. A year-long government inquiry into Britain's future energy requirements is expected by the Prime Minister to conclude that more nuclear energy is the only plausible answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Bible Society in Australia has launched a complete Bible in SMS (short message service) text for users to download and send verses to friends and family. All 31,173 verses are free to download from the Society’s website, although callers pay a standard rate for transmitting them. The process of converting the full Contemporary English Version translation to SMS text took just four weeks, rather less than the average ten years of most translations.
The following piece from the Brothers Judd weblog breaks my self-imposed limits of brevity in this blog, but I felt that it warranted passing on. Orin Judd is responding to the following item from the news: "Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus. Backers say the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, due to open next spring, will not be a sleazy sex museum, but an educational multimedia attraction that will teach visitors to become better lovers and provide valuable information about disease and sexual problems."
Now the Judd comment:
"Everyone has a now-familiar role to play in response to stories such as this one. Traditionalists are expected to splutter with red-faced indignation and mumble none-too-coherently about decency, morality, the corruption of children and the decline of family values, all in the embarrassed voice of one who is trying to discuss his private affairs publically. Delighted libertines move in quickly for the deconstructionalist kill and accuse naysayers of being in the grip of some warped psycho-sexual hell that only their radical “honesty” and “freedom” can cure. Leftists find torturously weird ways to put all the blame on the oppressions of a dark and dreary past and usually give their approval provided the spectacle is “socially meaningful”, which means as clinical and unerotic as possible. Libertarians wax poetically about choice, insisting that it is none of anyone’s business and that the mere existence of such ventures proves a pre-existing demand only a totalitarian would dream of trying to stifle.
"The debate continues, but it is hard not to conclude that, whatever is actually going on in the nation’s bedrooms, the libertines have won the battle for hearts and minds in the West, at least outside of seriously religious communities. We’re all Freudians now, and the fear of prudishness and thwarted desires reigns supreme in popular culture and social discourse. As a consequence, Western society is fast losing, not only the common values, but also the common language that would undergird any reasoned discussion on how to contain or limit sexuality to avoid the destructive and obscene. Indeed, it is a particularly amusing modern experience to see dull and dutiful middle-aged types defend the legitimacy of sexual appetites and practices one suspects they would murder their spouses for even dreaming about trying.
"There is a always a place for debate on first principles, but on this subject it is masking our ability to see what is going on around us before our eyes. The devil is in the details, but few can debate details on this subject without snickers and leers and a quick retreat to the abstract. Far from bringing freedom and a relaxed, carefree contentment, the sexual revolution has given free rein to an unquenchable thirst for ever-greater preoccupation, experimentation and titillation. Only the wilfully obtuse would think the easier general accessability of porn is bringing satisfaction of heretofore repressed appetites as opposed to an endless demand for more porn, rawer to the point of abuse or parody. Theater aims to shock what it knows full well is an increasingly unshockable public, and so ups the ante with each passing year. Youth are cut loose without a rudder in an exploitative milieu only a fool would judge them prepared for. It is all well and good to debate pornography and sexual licence in the abstract, but at some point one has to confront directly the gulf between a young person's confusion and agitation at the glimpse of a racy French postcard and his trying to negotiate anal sex on the third date.
"No one really knows where all this is leading. The subject is too elusive and human nature too varied to reduce it to reliable syllogisms or Las Vegas-style wagers. But we know enough from history and experience to understand that sexual extremes are terribly destructive to both individuals and society, and we live in an age of sexual extremes--the obverse of the most rigorously repressed ideal Calvin ever dreamed of. Conservatives tend to focus on the predatory and exploitative aspects, but insightful artists from Flaubert to Woody Allen have sensed a perhaps even more disturbing enigma. The road to sexual liberation may pass through thrills and rapture, but it ends in impotence, disappointment, boredom and often a bitter emptiness. That so many adults know this within themselves, but have been so intimidated or programmed by the zeitgeist that they stand tongue-tied and watch their children choose that road, is an act of collective social suicide. Jacques Barzun’s clear-eyed description of our decadence explains why not just civilization, but also sexual fulfillment, requires a firmament of sublimation and even repression:
"The sexual act itself was imitated wherever it could be managed, on stage or onscreen; some performers went so far as to commit indecent acts in front of their live audience. There was a cult of nudity, in serious plays and on public beaches, quite as if in those settings bodies were not the reverse of aphrodisiac. Pornography, protected by the rules of fress speech, was abundant but of low quality compared with the classics from Petronius onward; even the 19th century models were better literature. Closely allied were the writings of innumerable doctors and psychologists, seconded by columnists in magazines and newspapers, who offered advice on coital technique, or methods for luring the opposite sex, or encouragement to the old not to give up. The preoccupation with the subject began about the age of 12 and was in proportion to the incitement.
"The greatest damage from the sexual emancipation occurred in the public schools, where sexual talk and behavor, being tolerated, distracted from work. The resulting early pregnancies caused disasters of all kinds. But so great was the thrall of the sexual that school authorities dealt with the problem by means of courses, free contraceptives, and handbooks giving a full view of the subject, its variants and aberrations. [...]
The sexual reality was often halfhearted and disappointing, much obsession but little passion–what D.H. Lawrence had called “sex in the head”. Men and women did not benefit from the boasted “revolution" as they had expected; it did give some people the free play they wanted, but it pushed many more into courses unsuited to their nature and capacities.
"It did not install the Mohammedan paradise on earth, although everything in sight suggested it had. Pornography is a form of utopian literature and, like the advertising of Desire, it set a standard that brought on paralysis. When an erectifying drug was put on the market, the millions who rushed to obtain it numbered the healthy young as well as the ailing old, and women at once demanded its feminine equivalent. It was apparently not known that desire must be dammed up to be self-renewing."
"Toilets and changing rooms are reported to be one of the main areas of abuse, harassment, intimidation and discomfort for gay, transgender, lesbian, intersex and bisexual students. All students must be able to access a single unisex cubicle to avoid such harassment. GLBTI students must be able to choose which toilet they use however. If a gay student still wishes to use the male toilets he must be able to do so safely. A transgender or intersex student should be able to safely utilise the facility that corresponds with their gender orientation.... The same must be the case for changing rooms.... Schools need to have uniform options that allow people to wear the uniform in which they feel comfortable. All students must be entitled to wear pants, skirts or shorts."
The above was drafted in connivance with the secondary teachers union (PPTA) by Safety in Schools for Queers (SS4Q), a national organisation, established at a conference of 190 youth, students, teachers, counsellors and health professionals from all over the country in June 2005. The conference was a collaborative effort of the Human Rights Commission, the PPTA, the New Zealand AIDS Foundation, Out There, the Family Planning Association, Rainbow Youth and a number of individuals from the GLBTI community.
Does anyone have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and say that this politically correct nonsense will ultimately be more devastating than the alleged harassment? If there is harassment, it is wrong. But you don't correct one wrong by perpetrating an even bigger one.
Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, ground-breaking research suggests. Many Maori, from children to kaumatua, use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington. [Dare we say that cannabis use might be behind a lot of Maori over-representation in a wide range of social statistics? In which case, all that government funding to close the gaps is aiming at the wrong target.]
Tony Blair has decided to back new nuclear power stations, which would be built on the sites of existing plants and presented to the public and his party as a job-creating answer to climate change. A year-long government inquiry into Britain's future energy requirements is expected by the Prime Minister to conclude that more nuclear energy is the only plausible answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Bible Society in Australia has launched a complete Bible in SMS (short message service) text for users to download and send verses to friends and family. All 31,173 verses are free to download from the Society’s website, although callers pay a standard rate for transmitting them. The process of converting the full Contemporary English Version translation to SMS text took just four weeks, rather less than the average ten years of most translations.
The following piece from the Brothers Judd weblog breaks my self-imposed limits of brevity in this blog, but I felt that it warranted passing on. Orin Judd is responding to the following item from the news: "Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus. Backers say the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, due to open next spring, will not be a sleazy sex museum, but an educational multimedia attraction that will teach visitors to become better lovers and provide valuable information about disease and sexual problems."
Now the Judd comment:
"Everyone has a now-familiar role to play in response to stories such as this one. Traditionalists are expected to splutter with red-faced indignation and mumble none-too-coherently about decency, morality, the corruption of children and the decline of family values, all in the embarrassed voice of one who is trying to discuss his private affairs publically. Delighted libertines move in quickly for the deconstructionalist kill and accuse naysayers of being in the grip of some warped psycho-sexual hell that only their radical “honesty” and “freedom” can cure. Leftists find torturously weird ways to put all the blame on the oppressions of a dark and dreary past and usually give their approval provided the spectacle is “socially meaningful”, which means as clinical and unerotic as possible. Libertarians wax poetically about choice, insisting that it is none of anyone’s business and that the mere existence of such ventures proves a pre-existing demand only a totalitarian would dream of trying to stifle.
"The debate continues, but it is hard not to conclude that, whatever is actually going on in the nation’s bedrooms, the libertines have won the battle for hearts and minds in the West, at least outside of seriously religious communities. We’re all Freudians now, and the fear of prudishness and thwarted desires reigns supreme in popular culture and social discourse. As a consequence, Western society is fast losing, not only the common values, but also the common language that would undergird any reasoned discussion on how to contain or limit sexuality to avoid the destructive and obscene. Indeed, it is a particularly amusing modern experience to see dull and dutiful middle-aged types defend the legitimacy of sexual appetites and practices one suspects they would murder their spouses for even dreaming about trying.
"There is a always a place for debate on first principles, but on this subject it is masking our ability to see what is going on around us before our eyes. The devil is in the details, but few can debate details on this subject without snickers and leers and a quick retreat to the abstract. Far from bringing freedom and a relaxed, carefree contentment, the sexual revolution has given free rein to an unquenchable thirst for ever-greater preoccupation, experimentation and titillation. Only the wilfully obtuse would think the easier general accessability of porn is bringing satisfaction of heretofore repressed appetites as opposed to an endless demand for more porn, rawer to the point of abuse or parody. Theater aims to shock what it knows full well is an increasingly unshockable public, and so ups the ante with each passing year. Youth are cut loose without a rudder in an exploitative milieu only a fool would judge them prepared for. It is all well and good to debate pornography and sexual licence in the abstract, but at some point one has to confront directly the gulf between a young person's confusion and agitation at the glimpse of a racy French postcard and his trying to negotiate anal sex on the third date.
"No one really knows where all this is leading. The subject is too elusive and human nature too varied to reduce it to reliable syllogisms or Las Vegas-style wagers. But we know enough from history and experience to understand that sexual extremes are terribly destructive to both individuals and society, and we live in an age of sexual extremes--the obverse of the most rigorously repressed ideal Calvin ever dreamed of. Conservatives tend to focus on the predatory and exploitative aspects, but insightful artists from Flaubert to Woody Allen have sensed a perhaps even more disturbing enigma. The road to sexual liberation may pass through thrills and rapture, but it ends in impotence, disappointment, boredom and often a bitter emptiness. That so many adults know this within themselves, but have been so intimidated or programmed by the zeitgeist that they stand tongue-tied and watch their children choose that road, is an act of collective social suicide. Jacques Barzun’s clear-eyed description of our decadence explains why not just civilization, but also sexual fulfillment, requires a firmament of sublimation and even repression:
"The sexual act itself was imitated wherever it could be managed, on stage or onscreen; some performers went so far as to commit indecent acts in front of their live audience. There was a cult of nudity, in serious plays and on public beaches, quite as if in those settings bodies were not the reverse of aphrodisiac. Pornography, protected by the rules of fress speech, was abundant but of low quality compared with the classics from Petronius onward; even the 19th century models were better literature. Closely allied were the writings of innumerable doctors and psychologists, seconded by columnists in magazines and newspapers, who offered advice on coital technique, or methods for luring the opposite sex, or encouragement to the old not to give up. The preoccupation with the subject began about the age of 12 and was in proportion to the incitement.
"The greatest damage from the sexual emancipation occurred in the public schools, where sexual talk and behavor, being tolerated, distracted from work. The resulting early pregnancies caused disasters of all kinds. But so great was the thrall of the sexual that school authorities dealt with the problem by means of courses, free contraceptives, and handbooks giving a full view of the subject, its variants and aberrations. [...]
The sexual reality was often halfhearted and disappointing, much obsession but little passion–what D.H. Lawrence had called “sex in the head”. Men and women did not benefit from the boasted “revolution" as they had expected; it did give some people the free play they wanted, but it pushed many more into courses unsuited to their nature and capacities.
"It did not install the Mohammedan paradise on earth, although everything in sight suggested it had. Pornography is a form of utopian literature and, like the advertising of Desire, it set a standard that brought on paralysis. When an erectifying drug was put on the market, the millions who rushed to obtain it numbered the healthy young as well as the ailing old, and women at once demanded its feminine equivalent. It was apparently not known that desire must be dammed up to be self-renewing."
