Showing posts with label sex ed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex ed. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2016

Notes: Monday, March 28-Friday, July 1, 2016 (part 1 of 2)

1. "ParentsNext will assist parents with young children in planning for future employment by arranging activities and connecting parents to local services to prepare them for work by the time their children are at school."

The quotation, including its italics, in that headline comes from the Media Release "ParentsNext - helping parents with young children prepare for work", dated Wednesday, January 6, 2016, issued by The Hon. Sen. Michaelia Cash (Federal Minister for Employment, Minister for Women, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service), downloaded from the Employment portfolio Minister’s Media Centre website:

https://ministers.employment.gov.au/cash/parentsnext-helping-parents-young-children-prepare-work-0

See also
  • the "Grant Guidelines for ParentsNext Webinar" PowerPoint presentation, available here:

    https://docs.employment.gov.au/node/35611

    The fifth slide, headed "Policy rationale", has a bullet point saying "Added impetus: Australia’s G20 commitment to reduce the gap between male and female labour force participation.", and the text accompanying that slide goes into a little more detail, noting, among other things, that "it is expected that the majority of parents in ParentsNext will be women"
Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, feminism, work

2. In one respect, The Greens are a better friend (or at least less of an enemy) to large families than Labor and the Liberals are.

I refer in that headline to The Greens' opposition to the abolition of the large-family supplement. See The Australian Greens Dissenting Report in the Senate's Community Affairs Legislation Committee's February 2016 report on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Measures) Bill 2015 [Provisions]:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Measures/Report

See also the respective speeches of Senn. Fifield, Moore, and Siewert recorded in the Hansard for Wednesday, February 24, 2016 (under "Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Measures) Bill 2015" under the two "BILLS" tabs at the left of your screen when you go to the following webpage):

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2Faf5e9bce-9bd9-45dc-bd87-c1d5218a5d66%2F0000%22

Labels: economics, family, tax

3. Mr. Lawrence on Family Tax Benefit B and horizontal equity:
… What we point out in paragraph 27 of our submission is that family tax benefit B is a hybrid kind of payment.

There was an interesting article by Judith Sloan in The Australian about a month ago where she talked about family tax benefit part B. She framed it, at least part of it, in terms of a tax relief measure. What she was saying—and other people have said this but she perhaps crystallised it—is that family tax benefit B is a provision that gives some horizontal equity to the tax system. In Australia, as we well know, we do not have family tax. The family is not a unit and the household is not a unit for tax purposes. Prime Minister Howard was very good in articulating the basis for giving some support to families through the tax system. His point was, and the same with Judith Sloane, that if somebody is prepared to give part of their income to support somebody else then they should get some recognition for it. There should be some tax relief, because it has a social value. If we give a donation to an organisation that looks after homeless children, we get a tax deduction for it, because it is recognised in the system that there is an advantage in that for society. Civil society, or the institution of society, is enhanced by the sharing of income.

So you get this notion of horizontal equity. We have used the tax rebate originally as one means of modifying the implications of just having an individual as a tax unit. What we now have is a hybrid. It makes it a bit difficult sometimes to work out how you should deal with it. Our view is that because there is a value in looking after children in the home and because there is an argument in support of horizontal equity then in principle there should be no cut-off point in the support. But the reality is that if you are going to support the people at the bottom, the most vulnerable, you might not be able to afford that benefit. If you reduce it back, you might lose the obvious horizontal tax equity features. That is an issue that I think has to be taken into account in this debate and it sometimes can be confusing as to how you deal with it.
[my ellipsis symbol,
Hansard transcript of a public hearing, on February 18, 2016, for the Senate's Community Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2015 (the quotation comes from Mr. Brian Lawrence, who represented the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (A.C.C.E.R.)):
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommsen%2F9b2b26ff-6726-4185-935e-06385bc5c0aa%2F0000%22
(A.C.C.E.R.'s submission is available at Parliament's website (but Mr. Lawrence seems to have had in mind section, rather than page, 27, on p. 8):
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Payments_No_2/Submissions)]
Labels: economics, family, tax

4. Some recent items regarding "respectful relationships"

4.1 Mr. Muehlenberg on Early Childhood Australia (E.C.A.) and its Start Early "teaching resource"

See the blog posts "Get Your Hands Off Our Children" by Mr. Bill Muehlenberg, dated March 6, 2016, downloaded from his CultureWatch blog:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/06/when-the-wicked-target-our-children/

and "The Sexual Anarchists Targeting Our Children", by the same author, dated March 8, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/08/the-sexual-anarchists-targeting-our-children/

There is a Start Early homepage at E.C.A.'s website:

http://startearly.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

4.2 Stop it at the start (a "$30 million national campaign designed to help break the cycle of violence against women and their children") "will unite families and communities around young people to positively influence attitudes towards respectful relationships and gender equality."

The quotations in that headline come from the media release "Stop it at the start", dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the Federal Minister for Women's website (the latter quotation was attributed directly to the Minister, The Hon. Sen. Michaelia Cash):

http://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/cash/2016/stop-it-start

(That media release is also available at the official Federal Minister for Social Services website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/media-releases/stop-it-at-the-start)

See also the transcript "Stop it at the Start - Campaign Launch Press Conference", dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://ministers.dpmc.gov.au/cash/2016/stop-it-start-campaign-launch-press-conference

(and also available at the other website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/stop-it-at-the-start-campaign-launch-press-conference)

In that transcript, Sen. Cash also reminds her audience of how
last year the Women’s Safety Ministers, we wrote to the Education Ministers, and we recommended that Respectful Relationships, that programme, be imbedded in the school curriculum. We were very pleased that then the Education Minister’s determined that it would.
As for the respective policies of Federal Labor and The Greens concerning 'respectful relationships', see
Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

4.3 Ms Barry on "respectful relationships education"

See the opinion piece "Respectful relationships education: teaching kids respect" by Ms Mary Barry (Chief Executive Officer of Our Watch), dated April 21, 2016, downloaded from Our Watch's website:

http://www.ourwatch.org.au/News-media/Latest-news/Respectful-relationships-education-teaching-kids-r

Labels: childcare, education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, sex ed

5. Some sources of information about the Martyrs of Carmes

See the Trove scans of the following newspaper articles (none of which had bylines):
  • "HEROIC MARTYR BAND. Death Preferred to Disloyalty. THE POPE’S EULOGY." in The Freeman's Journal, Vol. LXXVI, Sydney, Thursday, December 2, 1926, p. 40:
    http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116779424
    (That article also contains information about Bl. Noel Pinot, another martyr during the French Revolution.)

See also pp. 67-72 of Acta Apostolicæ Sedis (A.A.S.) Vol. VIII (A.D. 1916):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-08-1916-ocr.pdf

and pp. 415-425, 439-447, and 450-452 of A.A.S. Vol. XVIII (A.D. 1926):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-18-1926-ocr.pdf

(The latter volume also contains information about the aforementioned Bl. Noel Pinot.)

Labels: France, saints

6. Some recent Gay-related items

6.1 "An Australian first Pride Centre is the centrepiece of the Andrews Labor Government’s continued investment in services and facilities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Victorians."

The quotation in that headline is the first paragraph of the Media Release "Victoria Continues To Lead The Nation On Equality", credited to Victoria's Ministers for, respectively, Equality (The Hon. Martin Foley M.P.) and Health (The Hon. Jill Hennessy M.P.), dated April 27, 2016, downloaded from the official Premier of Victoria website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria-continues-to-lead-the-nation-on-equality/

See also the Media Release "Australia’s First Pride Centre", credited to the Victorian Premier (The Hon. Daniel Andrews M.P.), dated April 20, 2016, downloaded from the same website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/australias-first-pride-centre/

and the A.B.C. news report "Victoria to establish Australia's first Pride Centre for LGBTI community", dated Apil 20, 2016:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/victoria-to-be-home-to-australias-first-pride-centre/7343932

(While gathering that information, I came across this remarkable document:

Equality back on the agenda: Labor’s LGBTI Policy)

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

6.2 "A Shorten Labor Government will appoint a full-time LGBTI Discrimination Commissioner to the Australian Human Rights Commission."

The quotation in that headline is the first paragraph of the media release "Labor To Appoint A New Champion For LGBTI Australians", issued jointly by The Hon. Sen. Penny Wong (Leader of H.M.A. Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment) and The Hon. Mark Dreyfus Q.C. M.P. (Federal Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Arts Minister), dated Saturday, May 21, 2016, downloaded from Mr. Dreyfus's website:

http://markdreyfus.nationbuilder.com/labor_to_appoint_a_new_champion_for_lgbti_australians

See also
Labels: A.H.R.C., G.L.B.T., human rights

6.3 On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, His Excellency The Governor of New South Wales "met with Mr Geoff Selig, Board Director, and Mr Sean Linkson, Chief Executive Officer of The Pinnacle Foundation, an organisation established to provide scholarships to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Queer students who are marginalised or disadvantaged."

The quotation in that headline comes from the webpage "Wednesday, 25 May 2016" at the official Governor of New South Wales website:

https://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/governor/vice-regal-program/wednesday/

Labels: G.L.B.T., N.S.W.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, A.D. 2016
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Monday, March 28, 2016

Notes: Friday, January 1-Monday, March 28, 2016

1. Some changes to this blog's sidebar

Just before posting this issue of "Notes", I added
  • a "Search services" section, containing links to Google and to Trove, between my "Discussion links" and "Reference links" sections
Labels: blogs

2. Mr. Alexander on two theories of how political authority is transferred from God to the sovereign:
… Ever since Suarez and Bellarmine, this theory[, that is, "the theory of the social contract and the transfer of power by the people as a whole",] had been the subject of violent dispute between the partisans of the formal and conservative interpretation of the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas which found the origin and the bearer of state power to be in the state community, and the partisans of a realistic interpretation and its further development in the tradition of Suarez and the others. According to the first concept, the people in a state are only indirectly the bearers of political power and all they can do is to designate (designatio) or elect the immediate bearer of political power to whom this power is then transferred “by the grace of God.” According to the second concept the people in a state are themselves the bearers of state power which they transfer directly (delegatio) to the organs of the state in the name of the natural rights of the people, whereby they do not by any means dispose of these rights permanently by the contractual act of delegation, but on the contrary remain the perpetual and original possessors of political power. This difference between the so-called “designation theory” and the “translation theory” has significant consequences for the doctrine of the social contract and the active, i.e., revolutionary, right of resistance. Those who hold fast to the designation theory necessarily reject the democratic theory of the social contract and people’s sovereignty and, by the same token, deny the existence of a direct right to resist and to make revolutionary constitutional changes. Those who believe in the translation theory, on the contrary, not only defend the Suarist concept of people’s sovereignty but also deduce from it the right of active resistance. …
[my ellipsis symbols and square-bracketed interpolation,
pp. 506 f., sub-section 2. "The Doctrine of the State", section 2. "The Political Doctrines", Chapter VI "Political Doctrines and Social Theories", in "Church and Society in Germany. Social and Political Movements and Ideas in German and Austrian Catholicism 1789-1950" by Edgar Alexander, translated by Dr. Toni Stolper; "Church and Society in Germany" is Part IV of Church and Society: Catholic Social and Political Thought and Movements 1789-1950, edited by Prof. Joseph N. Moody in collaboration with twelve others, published by Arts, Inc., New York, 1953]
Labels: morals, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Thomas Aquinas

3. Mr. Smith on Mr. Nile's involvement in the New South Wales Parliament's extension, to all shops, of permission to trade on Boxing Day 2015 and ’16:
… You[, that is, Shop, Distributive, and Allied Employees' Association, New South Wales Branch (S.D.A.N.S.W.) "members, Delegates and supporters",] sent in thousands of emails and made hundreds of phone calls to the Rev Nile. Every major Christian religious group wrote letters of support calling on Parliament to leave the day for families. Despite all of this, the Rev Nile broke his election promise to you and he voted with the Baird Government to allow all shops to trade on Boxing Day.
[my ellipsis symbol and bracketed interpolation,
"A Challenging Year Draws to an End", by Mr. Bernie Smith (S.D.A.N.S.W. Secretary), p. 3, SDA NEWS (the "OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION, NEW SOUTH WALES BRANCH"), Summer 2015, available at the S.D.A.N.S.W.'s website here:

https://www.sdansw.org.au/news/sda-news-summer-2015-edition

Or go straight hither:

http://issuu.com/sdansw/docs/sda_news_summer_2015_so?e=9746493/31899528]
But see also the Media Release "Boxing Day Trading – Let’s Keep with the Facts", dated November 12, 2015, downloaded from the Christian Democratic Party's website here:

http://www.christiandemocraticparty.com.au/media-releases/boxing-day-trading-lets-keep-with-the-facts/

In particular, in connection with Mr. Smith's statement that "[e]very major Christian religious group wrote letters of support calling on Parliament to leave the day for families", see the message from the leader of the Sydney branch of the Anglican sect, available for download at that Media Release's webpage, or go straight hither:

http://www.christiandemocraticparty.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/151110-Archbishops-letter-to-FN-and-PG.pdf

Labels: Fred Nile, work

4. In the conclusion to H.H. The Pope's brief homily during a New-Order Mass (the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord, January 10, 2016), His Holiness "invited mothers to feel free to feed their babies in the Sistine Chapel if necessary."

The quotation in that headline comes from the item "Baptisms in the Sistine Chapel: offer your children the legacy of faith", dated January 10, 2016, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin of January 11, 2016, Year XXVI, No. 5; that item is available online under the same headline and with the same date at News.va:

http://www.news.va/en/news/baptisms-in-the-sistine-chapel-offer-your-children

An English version of the text of the homily in question is available here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160110_omelia-battesimo-signore.html

and in what was presumably its original Italian here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/homilies/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160110_omelia-battesimo-signore.html

Labels: breastfeeding, Francis Bergoglio, morals

5. Five points of interest in connection with the Safe Schools Coalition's All of Us "teaching resource"

The text immediately after each of the following bullet points is a quotation from the article "Sexual politics in the classroom", by Natasha Bita, on p. 17 in the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, February 13-14, 2016, First Edition, No. 15961, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited. I transcribed the quotations myself (though the article is also available online (behind a paywall, which you might be able to circumvent if you Google part of one of the following quotations and click the resulting link), at The Australian's website, under the headline "Safe Schools Coalition: sexual politics in the classroom", with the same author, dated February 13, 2016, here); each dash is the result of a word spanning two lines, and any bracketed interpolations are mine.
  • Victoria has ordered all govern-ment schools to sign on[ to the "Safe Schools Coalition program"] by 2019[ sic—twenty nineteen].
  • Taxpayers are funding the pro-gram, which the Safe Schools Co-alition devised based on advice from a “curriculum consultant” and a group of Melbourne teach-ers
  • Safe Schools Coalition national pro-gram director Sally Richardson tells Inquirer the Federal Edu-cation Department approved the All of Us teaching manual
  • The de-cision to target the teaching to the youngest high school students, she[, namely Sally Richardson,] says, was made by education con-sultant Janice Atkin, a former Aus-tralian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority project officer who managed the develop-ment of the national health and physical education curriculum.
  • “We worked closely with the federal Department of Education and Training to ensure all the les-son plans and videos were appro-priate for years 7 and 8,” Richardson says. “All of our re-sources are being fully funded by the Australian government.”
You can download the All of Us unit guide from the Safe Schools Coalition's website here:

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/all-of-us

or go straight hither:

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/app/theme/default/design/assets/all-of-us/documents/unit-guide.pdf

On seeing Mr. Marco Fink credited (under his assumed named "Margot Fink") on p. 2 under "DIRECTOR", "EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS", "SPECIAL THANKS", "PHOTOGRAPHY", and "CAST MEMBERS", I couldn't help but think of Little Britain's parody of Dennis Waterman refusing to accept work on a T.V. show unless he could "star in it, write the feem toon, sing the feem toon".

Regarding H.M. Victorian Government's putative plan to make all State-run Victorian schools take part in the Safe Schools programme: Two possible sources for that piece of information are the Media Release "All Victorian Government Schools to Be Prouder, Safer", dated February 2, 2015, downloaded from the Premier of Victoria's official website here:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/all-victorian-government-schools-to-be-prouder-safer/

and "Victoria’s 10-year mental health plan", authorised and published by H.M. Victorian Government, Melbourne, November 2015, available here:

http://mentalhealthplan.vic.gov.au/

According to the "SNAPSHOT OF ACTION" on p. 4 (p. 3 in your reader) of the latter,
We have increased support for the resilience and wellbeing of young people through:
• expanding the Safe Schools program to all secondary schools across the state
and according to the former,
a successful program that creates safe and supportive classrooms for same-sex attracted and gender diverse students will be implemented at every Victorian Government secondary school.
(and the "successful program" is "The Safe Schools Coalition Victoria program".) It was also interesting to see, under the sub-heading "Quotes attributable to Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, James Merlino", 'respectful relationships' popping up again:
this program is about working with teachers to provide a respectful and safe environment where every young person can belong.
Labels: A.C.A.R.A., education, G.L.B.T., sex ed, Victoria

6. Pius XII. on world federal government

See the text of the French-language Allocution of April 6, 1951 to the delegates to the fourth annual congress of the World Movement for World Federal Government in Acta Apostolicæ Sedis 43 (A.D. 1951), pp. 278-280 (to which the index refers on p. 891):

http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-43-1951-ocr.pdf

The text of that Allocution is also available in HTML format here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/speeches/1951/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19510406_confederaz-mondiale.html

Apparently, an English translation, though with no translator credited, was printed in the "THIS CHANGING WORLD" column (no byline) on p. 4 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. X, No. 480, Thursday, May 10, 1951:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/17409103

Labels: morals, Pius XII. Pacelli, U.N.O.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Easter Monday, A.D. 2016
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Monday, November 30, 2015

Notes: Wednesday, September 30-Monday, November 30, 2015 (part 1 of 2)

1. Some recent announcements by H.M.A. Government concerning foreign affairs

1.1 Australia will "provide $7 million over three years to support the United Nations’ Joint Programme for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health in the Pacific."

The quotation in that headline comes from the media release "Promoting Economic Growth in the Pacific", dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the website of the Minister for Foreign Affairs (currently The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P.):

http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150929a.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

(That iniative came to my attention via this article at The Australian's website.) According to a press release issued jointly by the United Nations Children's Fund (U.N.I.C.E.F.), the United Nations Population Fund (U.N.F.P.A.), and the World Health Organisation, Ms Bishop "noted that the AU$7 million investment will support the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health". That Strategy can be downloaded from its official website here:

http://globalstrategy.everywomaneverychild.org/

Or go straight hither:

http://globalstrategy.everywomaneverychild.org/pdf/EWEC_globalstrategyreport_200915_FINAL_WEB.pdf

(And the aforementioned press release is available under the headline "Joint Media Release: Australian commitment to UN joint programme for Pacific mother, child and adolescent health kicks off investment in Global Goals for Sustainable Development", dated September 30, 2015, at U.N.I.C.E.F.'s website:

http://www.unicef.org/pacificislands/1852_24727.html

and under the headline "A JOINT PRESS RELEASE: Australian commitment to UN joint programme for Pacific mother, child and adolescent health kicks off investment in Global Goals for Sustainable Development", same date, at the U.N.F.P.A.'s website:

http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/pacific/2015/09/30/12827/a_joint_press_release_australian_commitment_to_un_joint_programme_for_pacific_mother_child_and_adolescent_health_kicks_off_investment_in_global_goals_for_sustainable_development/)

Labels: abortion, contraception, feminism, foreign affairs

1.2 Were it to be elected to "the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2018-2020 term", Australia's "focus would be on empowering women and girls, strengthening governance and democratic institutions, promoting freedom, freedom of expression, and advancing human rights for all", and it "would be unrelenting in [its] efforts to secure abolition of the death penalty."

The quotations, excluding my square-bracketed replacement of the word "our", in that headline come from the text prepared for the spoken national statement by Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs (The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P.) in the United Nations General Assembly (seventieth session), dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the official Minister for Foreign Affairs website:

http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2015/jb_sp_150929a.aspx?w=tb1CaGpkPX%2FlS0K%2Bg9ZKEg%3D%3D

See also the media release "United Nations Security Council & Human Rights Council", dated September 29, 2015, downloaded from the same website, in which Ms Bishop says similarly that
We are an international leader in advancing the rights of women and girls, strengthening governance and democratic institutions, and promoting freedom of expression.

As a member of the Human Rights Council, Australia would bring a clear focus on addressing human rights violations and holding perpetrators to account. Australia would also be a leading advocate for global abolition of the death penalty.
[http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150929.aspx]
Labels: death penalty, democracy, feminism, foreign affairs, human rights, liberalism

2. "The tensions for parents, educators and children in building a sustainable culture of ethical and respectful relationships early in life" is the project title of taxpayer-funded (to the tune of $198992) research which "hopes to move the debate around sexuality and sexual relationships away from being viewed as problematic for young people to that of building a culture of ethical and respectful relationships in early life."

The quotations in that headline come from the Western Sydney University (W.S.U.) "RESEARCH DIRECTIONS" flyer "Building Children’s Ethical Relationship Skills with Parents and Educators", dated December 2011, presumably published by W.S.U.'s Office of Research Services, downloaded from W.S.U.'s website:

https://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/248057/071211_KidsEthicalRelationships_Robinson.pdf

(That project came to my attention via the print version of the article "Let's talk about sex, knowledge, health and well-being, baby", by Fran Molloy, dated October 12, 2015, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/lets-talk-about-sex-knowledge-health-and-wellbeing-baby-20151008-gk44ht.html?skin=text-only)

See also Prof. Robinson's staff profile here or here.

Labels: feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, sex ed

3. On the second day of the recently-concluded Synod, H.H. The Pope made His Holiness's "first direct intervention at the Synod in the course of the past two years"; in that intervention, The Pope said "that thus far the only official Synod documents which enjoy full ecclesiastical approval are the two discourses he himself delivered at the opening and closing of the Extraordinary Synod last October, as well as the "Relatio Synodi" or final document of the Extraordinary Synod which he approved."

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Pope Francis makes first direct intervention; was Cardinal Erdö undermined?", by The Rev. Fr. Nicholas Gregoris, dated October 6, 2015, downloaded from The Catholic World Report's website:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/4239/pope_francis_makes_first_direct_intervention_was_cardinal_erd_undermined.aspx

(That article came to my attention via this blog post by Fr. Zuhlsdorf.) Interestingly, the Vatican revoked Fr. Gregoris's press credentials the next day; see the article "Vatican revokes Catholic priest’s press credentials after he challenged archbishop", by Mr. Patrick B. Craine, dated Monday, October 12, 2015, downloaded from LifeSiteNews.com:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-vatican-revokes-catholic-priests-press-credentials-after-he-challe

Labels: Francis Bergoglio

4. "ultimately, the package is about trying to devise ways to increase female workforce participation amongst mums, single mothers, mothers in couple families. Historically, we know that that is occurring, we would like to keep it occurring, it can and should be a great engine room of the Australian economy and it’s great way to increase family wealth and prosperity."

The quotation in that headline comes from the transcript of an interview of The Hon. Christian Porter M.P. (Federal Minister for Social Services) on Sky News on October 22, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/sky-news-pvo-newsday

(That transcript is also available here, at Mr. Porter's electorate website.) See also
  • the official webpage of the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill 2015

    http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Family_Payments

    whence you can download, among other things, the inquiry report and the official submission of the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations (the latter is especially worth reading for the historical perspective which it provides).
Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, tax, work

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. Andrew's Day, A.D. 2015
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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Notes: Wednesday, December 4-Tuesday, December 31, 2013 (part 2 of 3)

9. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child "recommended that corporal punishment be explicitly prohibited in all states and territories" and "that ‘reasonable chastisement’ not be used as a defence to the charge of assault of a child"

The quotations in that headline come from p. 24 of the Children’s Rights Report 2013 by Australia's National Children's Commissioner, Ms Megan Mitchell, for the Australian Human Rights Commission (A.H.R.C.), downloaded from the A.H.R.C.'s website:

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/childrens-rights-report-2013

Labels: A.H.R.C., corporal punishment, families, human rights, U.N.O.

10. Prof. Williams on, among other things, Australian Marriage Equality's intervention in the High Court to argue that Federal Parliament can legislate for Gay Marriage, and the failure of Gay Marriage's opponents to intervene to argue the contrary

See the opinion piece "Gay marriage is now only a matter of political will", by Prof. George Williams, dated December 17, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/gay-marriage-is-now-only-a-matter-of-political-will-20131216-2zh9h.html?skin=text-only

See also the letter published on the webpage "It's a challenge to stand up to anti-Israel zealots" under the headline "Court's so-called activism", by Mr. Rodney Croome A.M., dated December 30, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/letters/its-a-challenge-to-stand-up-to-antiisrael-zealots/story-fn558imw-1226791564914

Labels: A.M.E., Constitution, G.L.B.T., H.C.A., law, marriage

11. "A federal judge ruled that a law banning the "cohabitation" of a man and several women in marriage-like relationships in Utah violated the First Amendment."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Polygamist Kody Brown wins the right to live with four Mrs Browns", by Rhys Blakely, dated December 17, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/polygamist-kody-brown-wins-the-right-to-live-with-four-mrs-browns/story-fnb64oi6-1226784779999

Labels: polyamory

12. Mr. O'Malley on how the "slights issuing from the White House to the Russian hosts of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games could not be more studied nor more pointed"

See the article "'Busy' Obama sends gay delegate Billie Jean King to Russia's Olympics", by Nick O'Malley, dated December 27, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/busy-obama-sends-gay-delegate-billie-jean-king-to-russias-olympics-20131227-hv6z4.html?skin=text-only

(That article was also printed under the headline "Obama's message on Russian gay laws", with the same author, on p. 11 in the "WORLD REPORT" section of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, December 28-29, 2013, No. 54981, ISSN 0312-6315.)

See also the articles "Barack Obama's Billie Jean King move checkmates Russia's anti-gay laws" and "A day in the life of: The Olympics", no bylines, dated December 18 and 20, 2013, respectively, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/barack-obamas-billie-jean-king-move-checkmates-russias-antigay-laws/story-e6frg7mf-1226785906532

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-olympics/story-e6frg6so-1226786860020

Labels: Barack Obama, G.L.B.T., Vladimir Putin

13. "The World Health Organization (WHO) is distributing a document setting the standards for sexual education in Europe"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "WHO sex-ed guidelines promote masturbation, abortion, homosexuality to children: parents outraged", by Sofia Vazquez-Mellado, dated October 8, 2013, downloaded from LifeSiteNews.com:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/who-sex-ed-guidelines-promote-masturbation-abortion-homosexuality-to-childr

(That article came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Muehlenberg.) The document (Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe) is available for download from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health website's "WHO Regional Office for Europe and BZgA: Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe" webpage:

http://www.bzga-whocc.de/?uid=685e1296995416b8b1d7cee2469dde0b&id=Seite4489

Labels: sex ed, U.N.O., vice

14. The face of Liberalism

See the article "Original Tussaud mask restores face of the Terror, pockmarks and all", no byline, dated December 18, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/original-tussaud-mask-restores-face-of-the-terror-pockmarks-and-all/story-fnb64oi6-1226785303384

Labels: liberalism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas, and the feast of St. Sylvester I., Pope, Confessor, A.D. 2013
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Monday, October 8, 2012

Notes: Thursday, August 30-Monday, October 8, 2012

1. On Wednesday, August 29, 2012, Ms Gillard launched "Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development", which is an initiative—reportedly a personal one of hers—for propagating Feminism throughout the Pacific Islands at a cost of $320 million (over a decade) to Australian taxpayers, part of which sum will be spent on "reproductive health (including family planning) education, awareness and service programs".

My source for saying that Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development is a "personal initiative" by The Hon. Jullia Gillard M.P. is the article "PM gets lift on way to raise status of women", by Daniel Flitton, dated August 30, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/pm-gets-lift-on-way-to-raise-status-of-women-20120829-2512n.html?skin=text-only

My inference that part of that $320 million will be spent on "reproductive health (including family planning) education, awareness and service programs" follows from the identification, in the "PACIFIC LEADERS GENDER EQUALITY DECLARATION" (Annex 1 to the "43rd Pacific Islands Forum Communique"), of "[e]nsur[ing that] reproductive health (including family planning) education, awareness and service programs receive adequate funding support" as one of the "specific national policy actions to progress gender equality in the areas of gender responsive government programs and policies, decision making, economic empowerment, ending violence against women, and health and education"; one can also infer it from Ms Gillard's media release of Wednesday, August 29, 2012 titled "Addressing gender inequality in the Pacific", which says that
We know that violence against women and poor maternal health outcomes persist in this region.

Promoting gender equality is about addressing these injustices. …
See also this AusAID web-page and the downloadable brochure there:

http://www.ausaid.gov.au/Publications/Pages/brochure-pacific-women-development.aspx

and "‘Shaping Pacific development', speech at the Pacific Islands Forum", given by Ms Gillard, Wednesday, August 29, 2012, downloaded from the "Press Office" section of the Prime Ministerial website:

http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/%E2%80%98shaping-pacific-development-speech-pacific-islands-forum

Labels: abortion, contraception, Julia Gillard

2. "Greater Exposure to Sexual Content in Popular Movies Predicts Earlier Sexual Debut and Increased Sexual Risk Taking"

The quotation in that headline is the title of an article (doi: 10.1177/0956797611435529) by Ross E. O'Hara et al. in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science; that article's abstract is available here:

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/9/984

(That article came to my attention via Adam Taor's "PULSE" column on p. 5 of the "HEALTH" section of the "WEEKEND PROFESSIONAL" supplement in The Weekend Australian, September 1-2, 2012, First Edition, No. 14901, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited, a version of which column is available on-line, but behind a paywall, here.)

Labels: films, vice

3. "Israel and Taiwan are the biggest national supporters of trips by Australian politicians, recording 44 and 16 partly or fully funded trips respectively."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "All the little extras in an MP's grab-bag", by Stuart Washington, Tom Allard, Lawrence Bull, and Frances Mao, dated September 1, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/all-the-little-extras-in-an-mps-grabbag-20120831-255mu.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version of it, with the same headline and by the same authors, which was printed on p. 3 of the "News Review" supplement in The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, September 1-2, 2012, No. 54572, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: State of Israel

4. "only 2 per cent of the population is gay"

The quotation in that headline was attributed to "Andrew Grulich, head of HIV epidemiology and prevention programs at the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW," in the article "Suicide a bigger danger to gays: health experts", by Adam Cresswell, dated September 13, 2012, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/suicide-a-bigger-danger-to-gays-health-experts/story-e6frg8y6-1226472976036

For more on the homosexual proportion of the (Australian) population, see the "Sex in Australia" report in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, April 2003, Volume 27, Issue 2, pp. 103–256, available on-line here, the most relevant—in the present context—parts of which are "Sex in Australia: Sexual identity, sexual attraction and sexual experience among a representative sample of adults" and "Sex in Australia: Homosexual experience and recent homosexual encounters", both of which have Prof. Grulich as one of their co-authors.

(Those "Sex in Australia" U.R.L.s came to my attention via the Frequently Asked Questions page at the Australian Marriage Forum website. (And the Australian Marriage Forum came to my attention via the opinion piece "Gay marriage is not the cure", by Dr. David van Gend, dated Sepember 14, 2012, downloaded from The Australian's website.))

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

5. "''When they're younger both men and women tended to aspire to a larger family size. When they were older they tended to revise down their expectations,'' Dr[. Daryl] Higgins[", the deputy director of research at the Australian Institute of Family Studies,"] said."

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Just your average couple: one for mum, one for dad … and none for the country", by Stephanie Gardiner, dated September 14, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/just-your-average-couple-one-for-mum-one-for-dad-8230-and-none-for-the-country-20120913-25v8x.html?skin=text-only

Labels: contraception, demography, families

6. On recent Russo-American relations

See the article "Russia boots US aid out amid accusations of meddling in elections", by Alan Cullison, dated September 21, 2012, and the comment piece "Vladimir Putin doesn't want to be buddies", by Tony Halpin, also dated September 21, 2012, both downloaded from the The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/russia-boots-us-aid-out-amid-accusations-of-meddling-in-elections/story-fnay3ubk-1226478359601

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/vladimir-putin-doesnt-want-to-be-buddies/story-fnb64oi6-1226478312416

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

7. "When [equally ]well-educated families were compared, marriage lifted a child's chance of avoiding poverty by 75 per cent."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Stability a big factor in poverty", no by-line, p. 15, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, September 18, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2646, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd. That article is not available at the Tele's website, but a longer version of it is available at the British Daily Mail's website under the headline "Growing up with married parents is as important as a good education to escaping poverty", by Simon Caldwell, dated September 16/17, 2012:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204263/Growing-married-parents-important-good-education-escaping-poverty.html

The report on which those articles are based—"Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty", by Mr. Robert Rector for The Heritage Foundation, dated September 5, 2012—is available here:

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/marriage-americas-greatest-weapon-against-child-poverty

See also the LifeSiteNews.com article "Marriage is the most effective weapon to fight child poverty, study finds", by Ben Johnson, dated Thursday, September 13, 2012:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/marriage-is-the-most-effective-weapon-to-fight-child-poverty-study-finds

Labels: marriage, poverty

8. "Bottle-fed infants experienced a 4.6-fold higher risk of PS[, i.e., pyloric stenosis,] compared with infants who were not bottle-fed."

The quotation in that headline comes from the abstract of a Pediatrics article titled "Bottle-feeding and the Risk of Pyloric Stenosis" (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2785) by Camilla Krogh et al. That article is available on-line here:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/08/28/peds.2011-2785

(That article came to my attention via the second item in Adam Taor's "PULSE" column on p. 47 of the "HEALTH" section of the "WEEKEND PROFESSIONAL" section in the "SPORT" pages of The Weekend Australian, September 15-16, 2012, First Edition, No. 14913, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited. According to Dr. Taor, pyloric stenosis is "a narrowing of the opening from the stomach to the first part of the small intestine", and it "can cause severe vomiting." (Apparently, that installment of "PULSE" is not available on-line.))

Labels: breastfeeding

9. "Schools in sex education revolution"

The article "Schools in sex education revolution", by Natasha Bita (national social editor for the Sydney Daily Telegraph (among other newspapers?)), dated September 17, 2012 is available at the Tele's website:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sex-educaction-gets-physical/story-e6freuy9-1226475402901

(It came to my attention via the version of it which was published under the heading "Sex ed revolution in schools", by the same author, on p. 03 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph of Monday, September 17, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2645, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

See also the article "Puberty lessons to begin in grade five", no by-line, dated September 17, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/puberty-lessons-to-begin-in-grade-five-20120917-261yd.html?skin=text-only

Labels: A.C.A.R.A., education, sex ed, vice

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Bridget, Widow, A.D. 2012
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