Notes: Wednesday, June 22-Wednesday, June 29, 2011

1. A couple of items regarding women in the paid workforce

1.1 Mr. Thompson on several points regarding women in the paid workforce

Here is an excerpt from an article entitled "They have babies, pay them less" and which appeared on page three of the print edition of the Sydney Daily Telegraph on Friday, June 24, 2011:

Alasdair Thompson, chief execu-tive of the New Zealand Employers & Manufacturers' Association, also claimed women were less pro-ductive because they took career breaks to have babies.
"Why do they take the most sick leave? Women do in general. Why? Because once a month they have sick problems," Mr Thompson said during a live radio interview to argue against a law aimed at reducing the wage gap between men and women.
"The fact is women have babies, they take time out with their careers," he added, admitting his statements were "contentious".
[...] Mr Thompson later tried to hose down the controversy, apologising for his comments.
[dashes in the original, my square-bracketed ellipsis]

I wonder what the evidence is for whether women take more sick leave than men, whether, if they do indeed take more sick leave, it is because of women's problems, and whether maternity leave hampers women's productivity?

Related web-pages:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/gender-row-exec-has-a-point-expert/story-e6freuyi-1226081435028

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frev00-1226080815733

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/new-zealand-employers-group-chief-says-women-dont-deserve-equal-pay/story-e6frg6so-1226080763729

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frez7r-1226080755986

Labels: economics, gender differences, work

1.2 Some facts and figures regarding women in the paid workforce and children in childcare

http://www.smh.com.au/national/childcare-rebate-put-paid-to-staying-home-longer-20110624-1ghsr.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/numbers-add-up-as-mothers-return-to-work-sooner-20110623-1ghjk.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, work, youngsters

2. Darwin on something which would invalidate his theory of evolution

This is an extract from a very small article entitled "Insights unveiled as Darwin's scribbles enter the digital era" and which appeared on page twenty-four of last weekend's (June 25-26, 2011) edition of The Sydney Morning Herald:

Darwin wrote alongside this: "If this ["that there were definite limits to the vari-ation of species"] were true adios theory."

Labels: evolution

3. "Russian Orthodox Church to tinker with its liturgy"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37841

Labels: R.O.C.

4. A couple of recent reported facts regarding the death penalty

4.1 "Since 1978, [Californian] voters have consistently opted to widen the capital punishment net so that the state now has the most sweeping laws in the country, with some 39 eligible crimes"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/executions-cost-300m-each-in-california-study-20110621-1gdfu.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

4.2 "Australia ... annually co-sponsors a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission that calls for all nations to abolish [capital] punishment"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/subtle-shifts-offer-hope-of-abolition-20110626-1glm2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

5. "A Bibliography of the Current Crisis in the Catholic Church"

http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2011/06/bibliography-of-current-crisis-in.html

That came to my attention via this AQ thread:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37842

Labels: modernism, N.O.M., Vatican II

6. "Liechtenstein archbishop in Mass 'boycott'"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37862

Labels: Church and State

7. "Students get insight into Holocaust horrors"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=26928

This bit was particularly evocative:

This year three Santa Maria College students ... prepared a liturgical movement in response to ... Walter Rapoport, Chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews Victoria.

(In the Australian Conciliar church, "liturgical movement" means liturgical dance.) It brings to mind pagan dancing girls swirling around an idol of "The Holocaust".

Labels: Jews

8. "Kremlin eliminates Putin challengers"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kremlin-eliminates-putin-challengers/story-e6frg6so-1226080860884

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 15-Tuesday, June 21, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

6.2 A blog comment on sola Scriptura: "[T]he phrase “Sola Scriptura” ... is not found in the Bible"

The comment of 17.6.11 / 1am in the combox here:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/06/15/politics-religion-and-the-dalai-lama/

Labels: Protestantism, Scripture, theology

7. "[A] growing number of parents are having more than two children" ("[d]espite the nation's fertility rate falling slightly")?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/bigger-families-are-growing-on-us/story-fn6e0s1g-1226077320962

I would like to copy and paste that whole short article here, but I think that that would involve a copyright infringement; the one part of that article which I will highlight is this one:

Although the vast majority of Australian parents still have two children, Bureau of Statistics [A.B.S.] figures showed 29.3 per cent of women who gave birth in 2009 were having their third or subsequent child, with most mothers aged between 35 and 44.
[my square-bracketed interpolation]

I looked at the A.B.S. website but did not see anything under the "Media Releases" heading which might have occasioned that article, and I don't have time to conduct a thorough search of that website (though I would appreciate it if anyone could point out where, if at all, the relevant figures can be found there).

Labels: Australian fertility rate, demography

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 15-Tuesday, June 21, 2011 (part 1 of 2)

1. "["[H]omeless people sleeping rough"] represent probably only 3 or 4 per cent of the homeless population"

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/cold-and-so-alone-for-sydneys-homeless/story-fn6b3v4f-1226075926361

(Please do not jump to conclusions as to why I have noted this. I do not mean to downplay the difficulties which those who are homeless but are not sleeping rough undoubtedly experience.)

Labels: homelessness, poverty

2. Prof. Flint on, among other things, the questions of H.M. The Queen's nationality and who is Australia's Head of State

Under the heading "State of the nation" here:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/tough-reality-is-ill-health-necessitates-change-20110615-1g3qf.html?skin=text-only

The next day, the Herald published a number of responses to Prof. Flint's letter, under the heading "It's obvious who's the boss, and her nationality", here:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/theres-room-to-make-way-for-commuters-20110616-1g673.html?skin=text-only

Labels: David Flint, republicanism

3. "Echo of Soviet era in Putin's bid for votes"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/echo-of-soviet-era-in-putins-bid-for-votes/story-e6frg6so-1226076653930

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

4. "Hungary sponsors bold pro-life campaign with EU money - Eurocrats enraged"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37795

Labels: abortion, E.U., Hungary

5. Mr. Ferrara on the Rosary and the New Rosary

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23422

Labels: John Paul II. Wojtyla, Rosary

6. Two recent opinion pieces from Mr. Muehlenberg

6.1 A blog post on fallacious comparisons of mixed-race marriage and same-sex 'marriage'

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/06/19/same-sex-marriage-playing-the-race-card/

The Girgis-George-Anderson Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy article to which Mr. Muehlenberg presumably refers in that post is available here:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1722155

Labels: discrimination, G.L.B.T., law, marriage, morality

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, June 7-Tuesday, June 14, 2011

1. "Private prestige university on the way"--"reportedly being funded by millions of pounds from private investors secured by the eminent British philosopher A. C. Grayling"; "[f]ourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/private-prestige-university-on-the-way-20110605-1fnb2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: education, N.C.H.

2. Jewish-to-Catholic convert and State-of-Israel citizen named as a Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota ("the Holy See’s highest appellate court")

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37641

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2011/06/pope-appoints-fanatical-zionist-to.html

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/06/03/jewish-convert-named-to-top-vatican-role/

(The last of those three web-pages came to my attention via this CathNews page.)

Labels: David Jaeger, Roman Curia, State of Israel

3. Fr. Zuhlsdorf on, among other things, the myth of the origin of 'vernacular' Catholic liturgy

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/06/critics-of-the-new-corrected-translation-would-have-back-in-the-day-resisted-also-the-king-james-bible/

Labels: Latin, liturgy, vernacular

4. "Remarks [from a "Deputy Assistant Secretary" of the U.S. Department of State] for LGBT Pride"

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2011/165264.htm

(That web-page came to my attention via this comment at AQ.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., pride, U.S.A.

5. "[In The State of Israel,] there are more than 20 individual laws that discriminate between the Jewish and non-Jewish population"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/mandela-factor/story-fn558imw-1226073258456

Labels: discrimination, Jews, State of Israel

6. An article on evolution which (article) contains some interesting points from a Creationist perspective

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/a-grey-matter-of-size-brains-arent-what-they-used-to-be/story-e6frg8y6-1226073980121

Labels: evolution, neuroscience

7. Four viewpoints on whether "people [should] be able to use the sperm or eggs of their dead partner"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/should-people-be-able-to-use-the-sperm-or-eggs-of-their-dead-partner-20110603-1fkir.html?skin=text-only

Labels: I.V.F., medicine, morality

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Pentecost Tuesday, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, May 31-Monday, June 6, 2011

1. "Reverse proof of title, says Paul Keating"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/aboriginal-australia/reverse-proof-of-title-says-paul-keating/story-e6frgd9f-1226066787825

Labels: burden of proof, justice, law

2. "Neocatechumenal Way Invites German Youth to Madrid"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37573

Labels: Jews, Neo-catechumenal Way

3. Fr. Scott on Universæ Ecclesiæ

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37569

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Kurt Koch, liturgy, N.O.M., Peter Scott, T.L.M., Universæ Ecclesiæ

4. Mr. Muehlenberg on, among other things, how "[t]he exact Islamic requirements for halal slaughter ... may not be fully clear, at least in some quarters"

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/05/31/tortured-cows-and-babies/

Labels: Islam

5. "Gay softball league can limit straight players, [U.S.] Judge rules"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/gay-softball-league-can-limit-straight-players-judge-rules/story-fn3dxity-1226068573943

Labels: G.L.B.T., sport

6. Mr. Bellet on the size of the homosexual proportion of the population

The comment of 6.6.11 / 8pm in the combox here:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/06/02/why-radical-agendas-are-winning/

Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Norbert, Bishop, Confessor, A.D. 2011