Though many people are highly critical of the columns of Garth George, I often find that, past the general curmudgeonly nature of his columns, he often makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, he tends to couch his points in a fashion designed to bring out the worst in the blogosphere. It is not simply [...]
In September 2008 I wrote this:
Unfortunately, what this [the repeal of section 59] does to parents is place them in a position of having no clear idea what is an acceptable smack. Worse still, it allows children to threaten their parents, thereby seriously reducing their authority, even if the child has no intention of notifying [...]
The Herald reports today that 39 “minor acts of physical discipline” were brought to the attention of police, resulting in one prosecution and 37 warnings. The article goes on to say:
Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope said the figures showed police continued to apply discretion in handling “anti-smacking” cases.
Sadly, Mr. Pope completely misses the point. Absolutely [...]
Not much time for blogging tonight but I could resist a quick comment on the low-hanging fruit offered by ScrubOne in this comment. The Yahoo “news” item reads:
I feed my son marijuana
While most parents are focussed on warning their children about the dangers of drugs, mum-of-three Mieko Hester-Perez is happily dishing up marijuana to her [...]
In what has to be the most bizarre over-reaction I have heard in a long time, the Herald reports that a 12-year-old girl was arrested for scrawling on her desk. That is: properly arrested in handcuffs and dragged off to the police station and given eight hours of community service as her sentence.
Wow.
I realise this [...]
Obama announces.
President Barack Obama sent Congress his new budget overnight, a plan that forecasts the government spending a record US$1.66 trillion ($2.37 trillion) more than it takes in through taxes.
1.66 TRILLION deficit in a single year…
If you laid every dollar bill end to end you could walk on them through the centre of the sun [...]
Now here’s an interesting headline…
Ex-UN weapons inspector faces child sex charges
PHILADELPHIA – A longtime UN weapons inspector who blamed a 2001 sex-sting arrest on his criticism of the Iraq war has again been charged in an online child-sex case, and this time he was caught on camera.
Scott Ritter, 48, of Delmar, New York, engaged in a [...]
Today the police have blithely announced that 12 children were killed through abuse (9 murders 3 manslaughters) over the past two years (June 2007 – June 2009). This is unchanged from previous years with an average of five children a year dying from abuse and 45 seriously injured.
My immediate reaction to this was: The repeal [...]
BBC News reports on a fascinating study that demonstrates that victims of child abuse may have accelerated aging.
Telomeres are relatively short sections of specialised DNA that sit at the ends of all our chromosomes.They have been compared to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unravelling.
Each time a cell [...]
Fancy an emetic? The Herald is running a series of articles on child abuse today. Here is a nauseating recitation from a single article:
An average of eight children are killed each year, and many more end up battered in hospital at the hands of family members.
Children under two are especially vulnerable; each year 59 are admitted [...]
