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Smacking

Sunday, 21 March 2010 17:55 | Written by joni

I understand the international trend to ban corporal punishment in the home, but I am not sure whether that should extend to smacking. The SMH is running a story saying that the NSW "rejected an international trend to outlaw the practice".

Under NSW laws, parents and guardians have a legal defence that allows them to discipline children, provided the punishment is reasonable.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child condemns the practice, with its last report on international corporal punishment laws chastising Australia for refusing to outlaw smacking.

Not being a parent myself, I am not sure where I stand on this, but I was once a child, and I do not think that my life was adversely affected by smacking when I was growing up. Of course, it all comes down to the amount and extent of the smacking. Which I guess is where the problem is? What amount of smacking is OK, and what falls under abuse?

Marriage Equality Rally - Sydney

Sunday, 21 March 2010 14:54 | Written by joni

Here is the video I made about yesterdays Marriage Equality Rally.

Could not find a "Slippery Slope Slide" at all.

Kirby on Gay Reform

Thursday, 18 March 2010 07:03 | Written by joni

news.com.au is reporting on a new series of essays by Justice Kirby on homophobia.

"One day there will be a big parliamentary apology in Australia to gay people for the oppression that was forced on them and the inequalities that were maintained in the law well beyond their use-by date. Just like the delayed 2008 apology to the Aboriginal people of our country."

I dunno about that.

The rest of what he says does make sense to me.

"If Australians are now more homophobic than racist, as some recent public opinion polls suggest, this is because Australians have lacked good leadership on this issue."

Justice Kirby says just as Australians overcame racism by "getting to know" people of different races, "we would all overcome homophobia more quickly if every gay person were open and felt able to say without fear of violence and discrimination: 'This is me. Get over it. It is no big deal!' "

On this I could not agree more, but an apology?

CIA and LSD

Sunday, 14 March 2010 21:48 | Written by joni

A US writer has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA spiked a French village's food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

The timing does link into Project Bluebird, which was launched around that time. And that links in to the MK-Ultra project.

In 1973, when the CIA got wind of the revelations that would expose its decades-long program into mind control experiments, then-CIA Director Richard Helms, and Sidney Gottlieb, head of the Agency's Technical Services Division, got together to destroy all the files they could find on MKULTRA and related programs. These programs consisted of experiments on human subjects on isolation, sensory deprivation, induction of hallucinations and psychosis through drugs, electroshock, hypnosis, physical debility (through hunger, mainly), and other horrifying procedures.

Of course, I am a "believer" and none of this is true, because nothing the CIA did was illegal.

Which came first: Torture or TV?

Thursday, 11 March 2010 21:37 | Written by joni

Even I think this is far fetched, but The Independent is reporting that the former head of MI5 implied that the TV show 24 influenced the Bush administrations torture policy:

In her speech, highly critical of the US's conduct during the war on terror, the former secret service chief implied that the leadership in Washington was inspired by watching the TV espionage thriller 24. She said: "Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld certainly watched 24". Dame Eliza said: "The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing." She insisted that she had been unaware of what was going on until her retirement in 2007.

Oh come on, the TV show 24 influenced their decisions?

But then again - perhaps it was the other way around. The Bush administration used TV to soften the public for the use of torture. And it seems that I am not the only one to think this. Archie Bland has an opinion piece in the same paper where he says:

It's likely that this is the wrong way round. The whole point about the neocons, after all, is that they've been itching to get their hands on a bucket of water and a fishy-looking foreigner since about 1987. 24 has simply caught up.

Could it be that Wag the Dog is not fiction after all?

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