Links - 3rd March 2019 (2)

Four British girls and their teacher sexually assaulted at gunpoint on school trip to Ghana - "The pupils, aged 16 and 17, flew to Ghana on the trip that was meant to give them the “opportunity to experience life in a developing country”... Pupils stayed in guesthouses within a “secure walled” compound and gardens a few minutes’ walk from a local beach"
Most people in developing countries don't even live in guarded compounds

How Children Affect Parents’ Life Satisfaction: It’s Complicated - "German sociologist Matthias Pollmann-Schult used longitudinal data from a German panel study... Building on other researchers' hypothesis that parenting has minimal effects on happiness because its rewards and burdens effectively cancel each other out, he examined several factors underlying the impact of becoming a parent on individuals' life satisfaction... when he accounted for parents' different use of time---compared to their pre-parenthood days, they spend less time on leisure relative to the time they spend on housework, errands, and child care---and for their increased financial strain, he confirmed a common-sense observation: the "positive effects of children on life satisfaction are suppressed to a certain extent by changes in time use during the transition to parenthood" and more significantly "by the economic burden associated with parenthood." That is, becoming a parent would lead to an increase in life satisfaction if only raising children didn't take so much time and money. Given that the demands of parenthood seem to decrease as children grow older, are parents of older children happier than parents of younger children? The answer seems to be no: although "fathers and mothers of children of all age groups showed significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than childless men and women" when financial and time costs are held constant, parents of children under age two seem to derive the most satisfaction from parenting, and experience a decline in satisfaction as their first (or only) child grows up. Pollmann-Schult says that "might be due to a decrease in the emotional benefits of parenthood."... controlling again for time and financial costs, "a positive effect of parenthood on life satisfaction emerged for male-breadwinner couples, but not for dual-earner couples," and "female homemakers with one child were significantly more satisfied than their counterparts working full time." Dual-earner parents experienced less financial strain than other parents, but were no happier overall than non-parents, presumably because of greater psychosocial stress. In other words, male-breadwinner parents' satisfaction is offset by financial strain, while dual-earner parents' satisfaction is most likely offset by higher stress levels."

Does Having Children Make Us Happy? - "child-rearing exacts a toll on parental happiness: Spouses who raise children appear less happy than childless spouses. Overall, these studies reported that parents experience greater anxiety, depression, and marriage dissatisfaction than spouses without children. In fact, one study ranked the enjoyment of daily activities and found that child care was only slightly more enjoyable than housework or commuting to work... compared with childless couples, parents from Norway and Hungary tend to be happier. However, parents in Australia and Great Britain were less happy than their childless counterparts. The country with the largest happiness deficit related to having children was the United States. What explains the large differences in the happiness of parents across nations? The differences seem to come down to whether the nation has social policies that help parents face the challenges of balancing paid work with the responsibilities of child-rearing. Countries such as Norway, where parents are happier than nonparents, tend to have family-friendly policies, including paid parental leave, affordable and subsidized child care, more government-protected paid vacation and sick days, and greater work schedule flexibility. These social policies were important to the happiness of both mothers and fathers. In fact, both parents and nonparents were happier in countries with these social policies in place. Government and corporate policies that support children’s well-being seem to benefit society as a whole; for example, these policies are linked to lower crime rates and increased productivity... A recent study examined the link between having children and happiness from two surveys completed by almost 120,000 people (Herbst & Ifcher, 2016). They identified two trends: First, compared with nonparents, parents are becoming happier. Second, nonparents are increasingly reporting lower levels of happiness."

Alex on Twitter: "Pedophilia is a sexual orientation you bigots #nomap #nomapally #pedophilia"
The "myth" of the slippery slope

A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples. - "Many lay persons and professionals believe that child sexual abuse (CSA) causes intense harm, regardless of gender, pervasively in the general population. The authors examined this belief by reviewing 59 studies based on college samples. Meta-analyses revealed that students with CSA were, on average, slightly less well adjusted than controls. However, this poorer adjustment could not be attributed to CSA because family environment (FE) was consistently confounded with CSA, FE explained considerably more adjustment variance than CSA, and CSA-adjustment relations generally became nonsignificant when studies controlled for FE. Self-reported reactions to and effects from CSA indicated that negative effects were neither pervasive nor typically intense, and that men reacted much less negatively than women. The college data were completely consistent with data from national samples. Basic beliefs about CSA in the general population were not supported."
In other words, the harms of childhood sexual abuse are exaggerated and seem to be due to factors other than the childhood sexual abuse. Also, there is a case to be made for drawing gender distinctions (e.g. there is a case for treating female teachers who have sex with underaged male students differently from the reverse)

'Shout Your Abortion' Founder Talks to Children About Abortion, Claims 'It's All Part of God's Plan' - "A video that has been denounced as “brainwashing,” entitled “Kids Meet Someone Who’s Had an Abortion,” was posted to social media on Friday. It features “Shout Your Abortion” movement founder Amelia Bonow asking youth questions about abortion and opining to one young boy that she believes it is “all part of God’s plan.”... At the end of the video, one teen asks Bonow if she has any tattoos, and she turns her bottom lip inside out to reveal the word “abortion” written inside."
Friend: "I am absolutely pro-choice and believe in the right of a woman to decide whether her body can be used to host life or not.But this video disturbs me... This video doesn’t just oversimplify abortion. It presents rather facetious arguments for choice. And the danger is that now you have kids who will go out and be exposed to good arguments against abortion, who will then think that the arguments for choice have been addressed... At best this is propaganda, and at worst it’s the bullying of children into a particular perspective - even if that perspective is something I wholeheartedly support."

Poll: Most Americans Are Against U.S. Becoming More Politically Correct - "Fifty-two percent of Americans, including a majority of independents, said they are against the country becoming more politically correct and are upset that there are too many things people can't say anymore. About a third said they are in favor of the country becoming more politically correct and like when people are being more sensitive in their comments about others. That's a big warning sign for Democrats heading into the 2020 primaries when cultural sensitivity has become such a defining issue with the progressive base... "Political correctness" has been fundamental to the Trump phenomenon... "If you're the Democrats, do you feed into this cultural gap?" Miringoff asked. "Do you step on the accelerator on the impeachment stuff, or do you stay with things like the environment, women's issues, health care, gun control — substantive issues that have been moving independents to Democrats' side?"... The only groups in which majorities said they were in favor of people being more sensitive were Democrats, adults under 30, African-Americans and small city/suburban women... Americans are split 47 to 47 on whether they feel they can speak their minds more freely compared to a few years ago... When it comes to the overall tone and level of civility in Washington between Republicans and Democrats, 70 percent of Americans believe it has gotten worse since Trump was elected. And there isn't much of a partisan divide on this one, as nearly two-thirds of Republicans also say so... Notably, slightly more people blame the media (37 percent) for the tone in Washington than Trump (35 percent). As between the two parties, 13 percent of people blame Democrats in Congress while 8 percent blame Republicans in Congress... The dynamic of Americans overall faulting the media has become more pronounced since Democrats won the House in November."

Joely Richardson: 'It's politically incorrect to say women look nice now - I think that’s sad' - "“I don’t know if you feel this, but on the days when I really try, and I’ve had my hair and make-up done and nobody says ‘oh you look nice’, because it’s really politically incorrect now…” She shrugs: “I think that’s sad – don’t you?""

China to mark Year of the Pig with Peppa Pig movie - "China is set to mark the Year of the Pig with a film starring Peppa Pig, the popular British cartoon character that fell foul with its censors earlier... A Chinese internet platform in May gave Peppa Pig the chop as state media lamented the series had become a "subversive" icon for slackers and anti-social young people... People who upload videos of Peppa Pig tattoos and merchandise and make Peppa-related jokes "run counter to the mainstream value and are usually poorly educated with no stable job," state-run Global Times said after the ban. "They are unruly slackers roaming around and the antithesis of the young generation the [Communist] party tries to cultivate.""

Vape shop worker launches furious rant against Trump supporter - "A Georgia vape shop worker launched an explosive rant against a Trump-supporting customer and refused to serve him in a shocking incident all caught on video... Eventually the employee loses his temper and tries to hit Furgeson's phone out of his hand saying: 'F*** off, f*** off dude. Get the f*** out of here. I f***ing can't stand y'all racist mother f***ers.'Then he calls someone to complain about the customer and says: 'He's wearing some Trump bullsh*t...I'm not serving anyone that has to do with that f***er. I'm going to call the cops and have him leave... Xhale City's corporate office got in touch with him afterwards and told him the employee was fired."
So Trump Derangement Syndrome can get you fired

Israel Says Tunnel Details It Gave UN Ended Up With Hezbollah - "Israel said information about a tunnel that it shared with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon was passed on to Hezbollah, which used the knowledge to foil efforts to detect the secret passageway. Israel gave the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the peacekeepers assigned to ensure security along the Israel-Lebanese border, “precise information about the location of the tunnel”"

Catholic child abuse in proportion | Andrew Brown - "The Catholic figures show that between about 4% of priests and deacons serving in the US between 1950 and 2002 had been accused of sexual abuse of someone under 18. In this country, the figure was a 10th of that: 0.4% But whereas the victims in the general population are overwhelmingly female, the pattern among American Catholic priests was quite different. Four out of five of their victims were male. Most were adolescents: two out of five were 14 or over; 15% were under 10."
Evidently a much larger proportion of priests are child sex abusers than the general population

7 Percent Of All Catholic Priests Were Alleged Sex Abuse Perpetrators: Royal Commission - "7 percent of all Catholic priests were alleged perpetrators of child sex abuse, and the average age of victims was pre-teen"

Organizers cancel Women's March Jan. 19 due to 'overwhelmingly white' participants - "The organizers of the annual Women's March have decided not to hold a rally in Eureka on Jan. 19, as previously planned, because they say participants do not represent the diversity of the area. "
Among other things, this suggests that minorities have better things to do, that they are not woke enough and that intersectionality is a big con and just a way to hate certain groups

Girls at war: the new face of violence - "While the concern over violence has focused almost exclusively on young men, experts say there are worrying signs of rising aggression among teenage girls and young women... Health and education specialists and psychologists agree, and their opinions appear to be supported by statistics showing a surge in family violence by girls (often by ''little princesses''), an increase in girl-on-girl attacks in schools, and a rise in the number of women arrested over physical assaults."