Justice

Rape Culture?

20 Comments

An anti-rape protest has been organised in Palmerston North to put a spotlight on rape culture, following the Roast Busters scandal.

The Roast Busters is a group of Auckland youths, understood to be aged 17 and 18, who allegedly had group sex with drunk, underage teenage girls and bragged about it online.

The case was yesterday referred to the Independent Police Conduct Authority after it was brought to light that four girls complained to police, but prosecutions were not made.

I don’t understand why these people are marching. It seems the Police have acted badly but the protest is not specifically targeting the Police.

… Palmerston North event co-ordinator Mark Byford said: “Hopefully it sends a message to young people, especially in Palmerston North and the wider area, that rape isn’t OK, it isn’t acceptable in society,” he said. “It’s getting our voices out there and showing to the wider public that it’s wrong and we’re taking a stand against it.”

Young people think rape is acceptable? I don’t believe that.

Rape is illegal and probably the most hated crime in our culture – especially when the victim is a young girl.

I see that “Rape Culture” is a feminist concept but I don’t get what’s going on or what they are trying to achieve. Can someone put a spotlight on rape culture protests for me please.

Islam, Jesus FTW!

Tawriya

10 Comments

i_say_you

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.

He writes

Perhaps you have heard of taqiyya, the Muslim doctrine that allows lying in certain circumstances — primarily when Muslim minorities live under infidel authority. Now meet tawriya, a doctrine that allows lying in virtually all circumstances—including to fellow Muslims and by swearing to Allah—provided the liar is creative enough to articulate his deceit in a way that is “technically” true.

Deceit and lying may be far more ingrained in the culture than previously thought.

The authoritative Hans Wehr Arabic-English Dictionary defines tawriya as, “hiding, concealment; dissemblance, dissimulation, hypocrisy; equivocation, ambiguity, double-entendre, allusion.” Conjugates of the trilateral root of the word, w-r-y, appear in the Quran in the context of hiding or concealing something (e.g., 5:31, 7:26).

As a doctrine, “double-entendre” best describes tawriya’s function. According to past and present Muslim scholars, several documented below, tawriya occurs when a speaker says something that means one thing to the listener, although the speaker means something else, and his words technically support this alternate meaning.

For example, if someone declares “I don’t have a penny in my pocket,” most listeners will assume the speaker has no money on him—although he might have dollar bills, just literally no pennies.

This ruse is considered legitimate according to Sharia law; it does not constitute “lying,” which in Islam is otherwise forbidden, except in three cases: lying in war, lying to one’s spouse, and lying in order to reconcile people. For these exceptions, Sharia permits Muslims to lie freely, without the strictures of tawriya, that is, without the need for creativity.

I don’t have a problem with tawriya. Ibrahim is wrong. Tawriya isn’t lying.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (NIV)

Fruit

Fighting for peace is like subsidising condoms to cut teen pregnancy

7 Comments

F5E06A6C5CA52321E073FADC7AB3D4_h316_w628_m5_cEZWUiHcL

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board has been doing some creative thinking.

Condom card aims to cut teen pregnancy

Tennagers as young as 13 are being issued with 12-trip passes to safer sex, in an effort to drive down abortions and teenage pregnancies.

A scheme in which young people are given bus-pass-style cards entitling them to free packets of condoms has been piloted in Hawke’s Bay, and could be picked up nationwide.

This is a Christian libertarianish blog. I have some questions for our readers.

For our libertarianish readers. Would you rather pay for other people’s contraception now, or would you prefer to pay for raising their children later?

For our Christian readers. Do you support the Hawke’s Bay DHB’s initiative “to drive down abortions”?

(Sex, religion and politics. Looking for a polite conversation? You came to the wrong place!)

Social embarrassment and the cost of condoms were identified by the region’s health leaders as factors contributing towards unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Are social embarrassment and the cost of condoms factors contributing towards unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections?

Are social embarrassment and the cost of condoms factors contributing towards teenage pregnancies and abortions?

Teenage pregnancies are not always unplanned pregnancies and homicide is not an STD. What is the Hawke’s Bay DHB actually trying to achieve? Because if we don’t know what the scheme is supposed to do, we won’t know if it works.

I’m going to assume that the Hawke’s Bay DHB is trying to prevent unplanned teenage pregnancies.

The Condom Card scheme is being hailed by Auckland University’s adolescent health research group, which says contraceptive use among youth has remained stagnant at less than 60 per cent for more than 10 years.

New Zealand’s teen pregnancy rate is the second highest in the developed world, with the latest census data showing more than 6000 teenagers became pregnant last year.

Why so high? Social embarrassment and the cost of condoms? Kiwi women are the most polyamorous in the world, according to a study by Durex. Could that have something to do with it?

According to Wikipedia, 40% of teenage pregnancies end in abortion. That’s 2,400 children of young mothers who’ll never get to see the light of day.

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board population health adviser Michele Grigg said it had taken the lead from similar schemes in Britain. “It was time for some creative thinking.”

At present, young people can see their GPs for part-funded prescriptions for condoms. School health nurses and some youth clinics provide them for free, but not in all areas. A packet of condoms costs between $12 and $20.

Is that expensive? Twelve packets of condoms cost between $144 and $240. Is that expensive?

In Hawke’s Bay, more than 40 school counsellors, public health nurses, youth workers and two pharmacists are now trained Condom Card practitioners. Anyone aged between 13 and 24 can see them for a brief talk on safe sex, including advice on consent, and where to access health services, before being issued with a card.

Each time they visit a pharmacist, they get the card clipped and receive a free packet of condoms.

A brief talk with a trained Condom Card practitioner. Is that socially embarrassing? What happens when you notch up 12 clips on your Condom Card? Is the 13th packet free? Or does safe sex suddenly revert to being prohibitively expensive? According to the study by Durex, New Zealanders have sex an average 122 times a year. So the Condom Card might see you right for a couple of months. Then what happens?

Conversations with younger teens would be focused on safety, and encouragement to talk to their parents, Ms Grigg said.

An Auckland University evaluation after six months of the trial found 51 per cent of more than 200 cardholders were young women, with an average age of 16.

The scheme was funded by the DHB, and other regional health authorities had already been in touch, Ms Grigg said.

Hawke’s Bay Family Planning health promoter Gill Lough said chemists at seven participating pharmacies had been given training to be more youth-friendly and not to ask awkward questions.

Are you purchasing these for yourself or for someone else? Have you used condoms before? Are you using any other form of contraception?

It was hoped sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy rates in teens would decline, particularly in areas of high deprivation, such as Wairoa.

In Wellington, Evolve Youth Services manager Kirsten Smith said the scheme would be welcome in the capital. Condoms were free at its clinic, but it saw only a fraction of the city’s teens. “When you look at how hard it is for young people to access healthcare, something like this just makes sense.”

Auckland University’s Youth 2012 principal investigator Terryann Clark said national health and wellbeing surveys showed condom use had not risen since 2000.

“We’re not making a huge amount of difference for young people, and there’s a real need to improve that.

Not making a huge amount of difference? I guess that means we’re either going to stop what we’re doing or do more of it. Prepare to open your legs and wallets.

“Most people have access to chemists, and anything that supports sexually active young people to get good quality care is really positive.”

Only about a quarter of secondary-school-aged students were having sex, and the idea that giving away free condoms would encourage more was a huge misconception, she said.

I see what you did there. 🙂

“It’s not going to make them rush out and do it. If young people have support and education, they are less likely to have intercourse and, when they do, they are more likely to be responsible.”

Pharmacy Guild president Karen Crisp said it was great that pharmacists were being used as a source of easily accessible advice, especially if young people were unable, or less likely, to go elsewhere.

If young people have support and education (i.e., free condoms) then they’re less likely to have intercourse. You think?

I don’t think so. The problem is that the proposed symptomatic relief is going to exacerbate the underlying condition. The underlying condition is a culture of sleeping around. There is no doubt in my mind that encouraging teenage girls to have safe sex is encouraging them to have sex. Giving them a finite supply of free condoms at the age of 13 can only be bad. Like fighting for peace, subsidising condoms to cut teen pregnancy will inevitably lead to blowback.

We’ve heard it all before. Back in 2008. So how did that 5-year plan work out? New Zealand’s teen pregnancy rate is still the second highest in the developed world, with the latest census data showing more than 6000 teenagers became pregnant last year.

Taxpayers fund flavoured condoms

Flavoured condoms will be subsidised by taxpayers to encourage safe sex and reduce the risk of disease and unplanned pregnancies.

The flavours – including strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and banana – became available this month after government drug-funding agency Pharmac reviewed its range of subsidised condoms and identified a need for wider choice.

It already spends about $1million a year subsidising more than nine million condoms, and the range will now be extended to include large, extra large, ribbed and super-sensitive varieties.

Pharmac chief executive Matthew Brougham expected the broader assortment, which would be about 10 per cent cheaper, to be popular among a range of age-groups.

As New Zealand had high rates of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, he believed subsidising more condoms would encourage safer sex.

During consultation some stakeholders had questioned whether it was the right decision, but Mr Brougham had no doubts.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Health Minister David Cunliffe was also in favour of the move. “A wider subsidised choice for patients may assist with increasing condom use.”

Pharmac Acting medical director Dilky Rasiah said that overall the decision was about getting better health outcomes through a greater use of condoms, and increasing choice for a lower price.

“Improving sexual health is a government health priority so increasing the range of condoms available can only be good in terms of encouraging safe sex practices.”

Perhaps our Prime Minister in waiting (“may assist”) is more intelligent than we think. Par for the course, though, for the cocksure Ministry of Stupid (“can only be good”).

Each year New Zealand prescribers issued some nine million condoms, which cost the taxpayer less than $1m of the $635m pharmaceutical budget. Under the latest decision, the supplier’s price would reduce by 10 percent, she said.

“Condoms are already funded and always have been. This decision sees a 10 percent price reduction for all condoms, which frees up funds that can be used to purchase other new medicines.”

That’s about 10 cents a condom by my calculations. So how many condoms in a subsidised packet and what is the subsidy per packet? So many questions, so little time.

I don’t support the Hawke’s Bay DHB’s initiative.

I don’t have any creative ideas other than practising abstinence and eating more strawberries.

I’ll let Bob McCoskrie have the last word.

Conservative lobby group Family First has labelled the subsidised flavoured condoms as “morally bankrupt and an insult to people with breast cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease”.

It called for the Government to reverse this spending decision. National director Bob McCoskrie said it was “tragic and a national disgrace”.

“At a time when Pharmac can’t find funding for sufferers of breast cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and other serious problems, that they can find funding to subsidise flavoured condoms,” he said.

“This is simply about funding sexual behaviour that shouldn’t be at the cost of the taxpayer or other more life-threatening medication.

“Is Pharmac going to consider subsidising sex toys next?”

He cited a number of people missing out on funding for drugs.

“Yet Pharmac can find funding for strawberry flavoured condoms.”

Addiction, Bigotry and Hate, Bogus Science, Compulsion, Corruption, Freedom, Heroism, Hypocrites, Indoctrination, Jihad on Drugs™, Keeping It Real, Liberate your Mind!, Libertarianz, Live Like It's Legal, Nanny State, Prohibition, Propaganda, Psychology, Satan Laughing Spreads His Wings, Sheeple, Slavery, State Rape, Totalitarianism, Tyranny, Vested Interests, Zombies

Forbes: Everything You’ve Heard About Crack And Meth Is Wrong

6 Comments

methhh

By Jacob Sullum

Growing familiarity with marijuana has been accompanied by growing support for legalization because people discovered through personal experience that the government was lying to them about the drug’s hazards. But it is easier to demonize less popular drugs such as crack cocaine and methamphetamine, which in the public mind are still linked, as marijuana once was, with addiction, madness, and violence. Any attempt to question the use of force in dealing with these drugs therefore must begin by separating reality from horror stories.

mettthhh

That is where Carl Hart comes in. Hart, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Columbia who grew up in one of Miami’s rougher neighborhoods, has done bold, path-breaking research that challenges widely accepted beliefs about crack and meth. In his inspiring and fascinating new memoir High Price, he describes both how he overcame his early disadvantages to secure a tenured position at an Ivy League university and how he came to question everything he thought he knew about drugs as he learned to think critically about the issue.

meth_oldman-600x276

Before he became a scientist, Hart believed that people who use crack generally get hooked on it and thereby lose control of their behavior. But when he looked at the data on patterns of drug use as an academic, he could plainly see that only a small minority of people who try crack become heavy users. “Even at the peak [of] widespread use,” he writes, “only 10–20 percent of crack cocaine users became addicted.” According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, just 3 percent of Americans who have tried this reputedly irresistible and inescapable drug have smoked it in the last month.

Contrary to what anti-drug ads claim, Hart observes, addiction “is not an equal-opportunity disorder.” He notes that even rats, whose voracious consumption of cocaine in certain contrived conditions supposedly shows how powerfully addictive that drug is, tend to use it in moderation when they have other options, such as food, sex, or an interesting environment to explore.

worst-antimeth-ad

Crack “gained the popularity that it did in the hood…because there weren’t that many other affordable sources of pleasure and purpose,” Hart writes. “And that was why, despite years of media-hyped predictions that crack’s expansion across classes was imminent, it never ‘ravaged’ the suburbs.”

Furthermore, Hart’s own research with heavy crack smokers found that, in contrast with the stereotypical addict who cannot help but immediately consume whatever crack is available, they frequently rejected the drug in favor of small cash payments or vouchers. He got similar results with meth snorters, even though he deliberately recruited frequent consumers who had no interest in stopping. These findings underline a crucial truth that Hart emphasizes: “The effects of drugs on human behavior and physiology are determined by a complex interaction between the individual drug user and her or his environment.”

metttthhhh

Hart debunks various other misconceptions about crack and meth. He notes that the vast majority of violence attributed to crack grew out of black-market disputes, as opposed to the drug’s pharmacological effects. His studies found that cocaine and methamphetamine do increase heart rate and blood pressure, but the effect of typical doses is not dangerous in otherwise healthy people. He argues that research linking meth to brain damage confuses correlation with causation and fails to show that meth users’ cognitive capabilities are outside the normal range. And in case you were wondering, “There is no empirical evidence to support the claim that methamphetamine causes one to become physically unattractive.”

Read more >>>here<<< ********* drug-abuse-is-bad-drug-war-is-worse

Well Shucks!
Do you really think that Bigotry, Paranoia, and Tyranny has been propagating lies about how bad drugs like Meth are to maintain public support for their persecution and grievous oppression of an unpopular minority of Citizens????

Well DRRRRR! OF COURSE THE NASTY BASTARDS HAVE BEEN!
That’s how evil powers justify violating such principles as our personal sovereignty and property rights over our own bodies and our right to peacefully pursue our own happiness… at our own expense.
I salute Carl Hart for his bravery in presenting his observations which challenge the popular prejudices and delusions of the Status quo, and Forbes for running this story.
Evil prevails when good men do nothing.
We need to expose the war on Drugs for the Brutal tyranny and injustice that it is and empty our prisons of innocent people, and remove such revenues streams from the vicious Drug Cartels and gangs… exactly as ending Alcohol prohibition achieved.

Read my blog post >>> The New Jews… Meth Users.

and >>> New Prohibitions. How our Police and Government work for Criminal Gangs.

And >>> Historic battles. The Libertarian struggle against Drug Prohibition. Why BZP should have been kept Legal.

and >>> Drug users fill New Zealand jails

And >>> What you should know about Drug Prohibition.

And >>> The Child Casualties of the Jihad on Drugs.

And >>> Prohibition is a Bad trip!

And >>> A Transitional Drug Policy

Update: 13-10-14 …
Meth hitler

METH HEAD ALERT: Report statest that Hitler used crystal meth

Addiction, Bigotry and Hate, Cosmology, Evolutionism, Faith, Free will, Liberate your Mind!, Materialism, Nihilism, Pink Floyd, Psychology, Satan Laughing Spreads His Wings, Sheeple, There is a God!, Zombies

Comfortably Numb : Confessions of a Nyctophilliac.

11 Comments

There is a common excuse that ‘You cant choose what you believe’… this is self delusion.
In reality we all choose to believe what we do, it just a matter of what moves us.
Some of us are more objective than others … yet being human, psychology still plays a massive roll.
We kid ourselves if we think we are without personal prejudice.

nyctophilia… “an abnormal preference for the night over the day.”

huxley

^^^ This meme I ‘liberated’ from the excellent facebook page ‘The Illogical Atheist’ because it vindicates an argument I made in a previous post Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….
Through this meme… The Horse speaketh!

The important thing to appreciate is that many people choose to be atheists because they seek to pretend there are no morals by which they are duty bound.
They block out any and all objective facts of reality or sound arguments that challenge their coveted Nihilism…. closing their eyes, and their minds to any truth which threatens to awaken them from their Meaningless, purposeless, Conscienceless dream.
They keep chanting to themselves… “There is no God”.

In the words of Perfect Circles Maynard James Keenan…
“Best to keep things in the shallow end.
Because I never quite learned how to swim.
I just didn’t want to know”

Read more about my take on Music as a religion… Jim Morrison…. Maynard James Keenan Here>>> Jimi vs Jesus

More…. Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….

“Keep things in the shallow end… because I just didn’t want to know…”

Seether: Know Thyself. How can a Good God exist when there is so much evil in the world? Part 5.

Bigotry and Hate, Catholicism, Christian Libertarianism, Corruption, Freedom, Keeping It Real, King James Bible, Protestant Reformation, Revolution

Guy Fawkes. Agent of The AntiChrist. (Re-post)

2 Comments

Gunpowder-Plot-PUC-Med

Guy Fawkes night is creepy! Yet raise your glasses high Ye Liberty Lovers!
As a Libertarian Christian it creeps me out to think about how as a child I took great pleasure in making a Guy for the Bonfire. It bothers me that in my innocence that the sight of a Man burning at the stake did not provoke in me any horror whatsoever… but joy.
Pondering this I shudder at the thought of times and places where Real Men and woman were burned on bonfires, and worse still many of these were Heroic and Righteous people, completely innocent of any wrongdoing. They were victims of persecution and corrupt Laws and Governments, and Religious intolerance. Many were like myself… fringe dwellers labeled Unorthodox ‘Heretics’ and Non-conformists whom dared to challenge the Authority and Doctrines of the Orthodox Church.
Yet Guy Fawkes was not Officially a Heretic , nor was he burned at the stake. For the crime of High treason, He was Hung, Drawn, and Quartered! This is a process in which after being dragged through the streets and Hung on the Gallows, the Body is then cut into 4 pieces. These were then usually fed to Dogs.
All this heinous business churns the stomach and one may wonder why it is that 400 years after the barbaric punishment of Guy Fawkes we still celebrate the event? It is here where I must say that despite the atrocious fate of Guy Fawkes, I am a Fan of this celebration as it memorializes one of the most important circumstances of Providence in establishing Liberty in Western Civilization. Today there is a lot of Fireworks and money changing hands yet the truth behind this celebration is all but forgotten. Let me touch briefly upon the monumental events of the time and activities of Guy Fawkes, and revive understanding of the true meaning of this strange Day.

1605 Guy Fawkes was a devout Catholic, a Jesuit, and enemy of the Protestant King of England and Scotland James the 1st. The Jesuits were a Machiavellian Order…the KGB of the Catholic Church. They were involved in Covert / black opps and because King James had authorized an official translation of the Bible into English, The Catholic Church had marked him for Assassination. The last thing they wanted was the Bible placed into the hands of the common Man! They wanted to maintain their Monopoly on the word of God, the control of which left the populations of Europe at the mercy of the Priest-craft of the church of Rome. In these times Protestant Christians called the Pope the Antichrist, and as if to prove them absolutely right, his Satanic church moved to suppress The word of God from reaching the common Englishman. Enter Guy Fawkes and the Gun powder plot. He was caught planting Gun power in the cellars of the House of Lords to be detonated when King James was in attendance. After getting a forced confession He was sentenced to death and executed. There is not space here to lay out just how dire it would have been to the Liberation of Western Civilization from the yoke of religious tyranny had the Plot succeeded. When the Authorised King James Bible was published in 1611 the effect was Explosive! It is no exaggeration to rank its publication as the single greatest impetus to Freedom and Justice in Modern history. I will leave you with a 200 word letter I sent into the Waikato Times earlier this year in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the KJV.

Dear Ed…This year marks the 400th anniversary of the 1611 King James Bible. Its publication was the greatest single event of the Protestant Reformation inspiring enlightenment, religious toleration, independent thought, and justice among English speaking peoples and beyond. It was onboard the ships of the Pilgrim fathers whom set sail for America desiring freedom from old world tradition and ‘orthodoxy’. An explosion of denominations and sects occurred, which many conservatives mistake as a great evil, when in truth this represents true religious liberty from the tyranny of priest craft and the establishment. Tom Payne quoted the KJV in his ‘Common Sense’ sparking the American Revolution. John Locke used it in formulating his two treaties on civil government upon which Jefferson founded the American Declaration of Independence. It was the Mighty sword used by Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire , and later fostered the fraternal inspiration of North American abolition. The Font of civilization, it dispatched brave Church missionaries down to the antipodes to liberate savage tribes from superstition, cannibalism, and lawlessness. It was often upon the lips of Martin Luther King jr calling for peaceful civil disobedience in the fight for equal rights for blacks, etc. Praise God Almighty!
Tim Wikiriwhi

Nothing less than this entire history was at stake in 1605. As a Libertarian, I’m sure glad Guy Fawkes failed. I celebrate the survival of King James the first as an act of Divine Providence from which Western civilization embarked upon the road to religious liberty and enlightenment.

Picture: Painting of the Radical Abolitionist John Brown who inspired by the King James Bible set about to overthrow slavery in the American South by force of arms. Some believe him to be a murderer, Yet in my view He was a righteous Man. He did nothing which was not done on a much grander scale in the Civil War which soon followed after his capture and execution. For an interesting first hand account of this Radical Christian and the abolition of slavery in America I suggest reading ‘The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.’

Adultery, Bigotry and Hate, Justice, Prostitution, Tax

Don’t hate on beneficiaries

15 Comments

Fellow blogger Tim has suggested that solo parent beneficiaries are morally inferior to prostitutes. I think this is false.

Government forcibly takes from the productive – which is wrong but it doesn’t mean that it is wrong to receive from the government.

Everyone (or practically everyone) accepts money from the government. Consider these examples of government payouts:-

  • Pensions
  • Working For Families “tax credits”
  • Kiwisaver “employer contribution”
  • Student Allowance
  • Unemployment Benefit
  • Sickness Benefit
  • Wages
  • Contract payments
  • Tax loopholes

Receiving money under the above situations is not in itself wrong and morally no different than receiving a Solo Parent Benefit.

Some people may be motivated to get on a benefit by laziness but laziness is not worse than prostitution.

Prostitution is itself necessarily wrong – receiving money from the government is not.

Beneficiaries are no more deserving of hate than prostitutes – and anger towards them is misdirected – it is the politicians and their supporters committing the unjust acts of theft.

Give me Liberty, or give me Death!