RECENT ABORTION RESEARCH

Dear me! There is a lot of nonsense reported in abortion research. As far as I am concerned, abortion is an ethical issue and I have made my view of it clear elsewhere but various medical claims seem to get tangled up in it too. One claim is that women who have abortions are subsequently more depressed, which makes some intuitive sense and appears to be borne out by research. A recent piece of research has challenged that, however, and the BBC gives a reasonable summary of the controversy for the general reader. The abstract of the actual research report concerned is here and you can link from there to the full research report. I confess to not having read the article in full but it seems a rather silly article to me. They report that higher income women are more likely to abort and that such women are typically less depressed -- which rings true. But they apparently fail to control for that in assessing the effects of abortion. They really needed to compare women of SIMILAR income background (or control for income background statistically) in order to assess the effects of abortion. So I don't think we can conclude anything from their study at all.

And there is another study here which reports that women who have had abortions are more likely to become child abusers when they do eventually have children. The inference is that it is the abortion that makes the women more abusive. But isn't it the more obvious conclusion that women who are callous enough to have an abortion in the first place are also the types who would abuse children anyhow? Not all women who have abortions are callous but I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume that there are a lot more callous women among them than in the general population.

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THE IRISH FLOODS OF THE YEAR 2000

You can read a little about the floods here and the predictable Greenie comment is here but I think the picture below tells you most of all.



With an enormous effort at self-restraint, I will refrain from making any comparisons.

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ELSEWHERE

Australia's major public broadcaster, the ABC, is getting very grand -- with the pride that come before a fall, I fancy. The Managing Director of the ABC has just failed to turn up for a Senate scrutiny of ABC operations -- sending an underling instead.

Targeted terrorist assassinations would spare innocent lives : "When Pat Robertson, the televangelist who once ran for president, suggested that the U.S. consider assassinating Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, he was roundly denounced by voices left and right. Robertson is, of course, known for saying impolitic things. But, based on the breaking news that Chavez is seeking nuclear technology, perhaps Robertson's assessment of the Venezuelan situation was more farsighted than impolitic. The Washington Times recently reported that Chavez is on the offensive, making 'overtures to various countries' including Iran 'about obtaining nuclear technology.' Even more troubling than rumors of the Venezuelan government discussing the obtainment of nuclear technology is Chavez's recent fraternization with Iran's ruling bad boy, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has brought increased pugnacious policy choices in the southern hemisphere."

American and European car-makers both trailing on quality "Toyota, along with its Lexus division, makes more than half of the sedans and small cars that earned our highest Reliability Rating. All the others that earned this Rating were also Japanese, including the Honda Accord and previous-generation Civic; the 2006 Infiniti M35/M45; and nonturbo models of the Subaru Impreza. Most of the worst sedans in our rankings came from Europe, including several expensive luxury models such as the Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar S-Type, and the Mercedes-Benz E- and S-Class. The rest of the bottom-rated small cars and sedans were from domestic manufacturers and included the Chevrolet Cobalt, the V8-powered Chrysler 300C, and the Lincoln LS".

Methodists rediscover the Bible: "In a denomination divided over the role of homosexuals in its ranks, a United Methodist Church court Monday defrocked a lesbian minister and reinstated a pastor suspended for denying church membership to a gay man. The nine-member Judicial Council, the denomination's highest court, released its decisions after hearings last week at Houston's First United Methodist Church Westchase campus. The council ruled that the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud of Pennsylvania had violated church law that prohibits "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in the clergy. It also reinstated the Rev. Edward H. Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in Virginia, who had been suspended by his bishop after refusing to add a gay man to the church membership roster."

Reliapundit has a summary of the Muslim riots in Paris -- riots the French rather deserve, in my view. More background on the subject here

Brits still ruling some waves: "Royal Navy snipers shot out the engines of a speedboat carrying �200 million worth of cocaine during a drugs bust in the Caribbean, it was disclosed last night. The operation to intercept and arrest the drug trafficking gang was led by the Type 22 frigate Cumberland and a Lynx helicopter from her support vessel, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight. They intercepted the speedboat as it raced across the ocean 100 miles off Nicaragua. The four-strong gang tried to outrun the helicopter but they were forced to surrender after specialist snipers in the Lynx fired bullets to disable the speedboat's engines. A team from Cumberland boarded the speedboat, arrested the crew and seized two tons of cocaine with a street value of �200 million.

I have just put up here a big new lot of postings by Chris Brand on recent events to do with race, IQ etc.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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