"If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine." - Michael Jay Tucker

(More abortion quotes - both pro-choice and pro-'life')


Random Trivia bit: Leucippe was a nymph ravished by Hades and then transformed by him into a white poplar tree.

The name Leucippe or Leuce means 'white,' like the tree she became. The poplar was thenceforth sacred to Hades (rapist gods apparently frequently suffer from some sort of cognitive dissonance which causes them to 'honor' their victims).

(Women in Greek Mythology II: the Metamorphosed)

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The newest version of IVLE comes with an RSS aggregator (though I don't see it in my IVLE workspace).

So NUS students can read my blog while they study. Hahaha.

Meanwhile, one module offers the option for giving "anonymous feedback". Wah.


There's a lecturer who's been teaching at NUS since a few days after I was born. Scary.

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A profound insight on my "Why I Hate Valentine's Day" article:

"there is another side, the gals have tat power becoz guys gave them tat power. why do guys do it in the first place? reflects their insecurity too. or even their selfishness to reserve their gals against other guys

survival of the fittest and stuff. aiyah, the games people play.

mebbe it's a developed mechanism for gals to filter guys. haha, i anthropologise (as opposed to romanticise) too much"


It occurs to me that since the article on Fee Hikes will probably piss off the administration and the article on Valentine's Day will piss off students who are attached, I'll end up being disliked by everyone :)

Ah well, what's new!

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Shattered Glass, Battered Freedom : The concept of religious "tolerance" seems to be warping apace these days.

"Freedom of speech that does not embrace the right to offend is a farce. The stipulation that you may say whatever you like so long as you don't hurt anyone's feelings canonizes the milquetoast homily, "If you can't say anything nice. . . ." Since rare is the sentiment that does not incense someone, rest assured that in that instance you don't say anything at all.

I am under no obligation to respect your beliefs. Respect is earned; it is not an entitlement. I may regard creationists as plain wrong, which would make holding their beliefs in high regard nonsensical. In kind, if I proclaim on a street corner that a certain Japanese beetle in my back garden is the new Messiah, you are also within your rights to ridicule me as a fruitcake.

Are we not on the way to classifying hatred itself as a crime? And while we are at it, should we not then criminalize envy and narcissism for also being antisocial states of mind? Moreover, what is the difference between "incitement to hatred" and "incitement to fierce dislike"? Or "incitement to mockery"?

Apparently contemporary "tolerance" does not merely allow others to practice whatever goofy or incomprehensible religion they like--and sometimes with a rolled eye--but surrounds any faith with a hands-off halo of sanctity, so that whatever is sacred to you must also be sacred to me. Disquietingly, this halo in Britain may be enshrined into law. Worse, today's exaggeratedly deferent brand of tolerance is driven by a darker force than mere let's-all-get-along multiculturalism, and that is fear. In the post-9/11 world, we are arriving at an unspoken understanding that zealots in our midst must not be offended, lest in their indignation they do something horrible."

In a similar vein: I'm disgusted ministers did nothing as Sikhs forced play's closure, says Rushdie - "If being upset is the only requirement to banning something, there will be nothing on in the theatres... Should we ban Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice for being anti-Semitic? Where do you stop?"

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Does Truth Serum Work?- "Not in the sense that it makes people tell the truth. So-called truth serums lower your inhibitions, and as a result you may become chattier but not necessarily more truthful. Losing your inhibitions isn't the same as losing your self-control. Subjects who have been administered a "truth serum" can lie, they can fantasize, and they can be manipulated into telling falsehoods by an interviewer's suggestions and cues."

An interesting perspective on abortion: "He concludes that both sides of the abortion debate are an impediment to progress. This after noting the low abortion rates in many European countries, and recommending that we look into and adopt the policies of these countries. I would confidently predict that some of these policies have to do with rational sex education that gives teens (and others) full knowledge and access to available birth control options. Ironic then that it is the Christian right that is both vehenmently anti-abortion, and also against sex education beyond "abstinence only". This Christian right also aligns itself with political-economic forces that obstruct equal access to healthcare and would in no way endorse protection from financial burdens of expectant mothers (at least as provided by the state). "

The Myth Is the Message -- Yet another discovery of the lost continent of Atlantis shows why science and myth make uneasy bedfellows - "Atlantis also has been "found" in the Mediterranean, the Canaries, the Azores, the Caribbean, Tunisia, West Africa, Sweden, Iceland and even South America. But what if there is nothing to find? What if Plato made up the story for mythic purposes? He did. Atlantis is a tale about what happens to a civilization when it becomes combative and corrupt. Plato's purpose was to warn his fellow Athenians to pull back from the precipice created by war and wealth... Plato wove historical fact into literary myth. As he wrote of his parables: "We may liken the false to the true for the purpose of moral instruction." The myth is the message."

A Tiny Revolution: America Is Getting Truly Creepy - "Fox was going berserk about some UN official calling the US "stingy" with relief funds... the "stingy" reference in question by the UN official was to "western nations" generally. The US was never singled out. Why would Fox News and their pants-wetting brethren pick a fight like this? You can make some elaborate argument about how they hate the UN, and this fabrication gives them another opportunity to attack them, etc. But I believe it goes deeper than that. These people ABSOLUTELY MUST be constantly fighting with someone. It doesn't matter who, just that the fight continues. The never-ending battle serves some deep psychological need for them."

A Tiny Revolution: What Kind Of A World Are We Leaving For Our Children? - "Whenever I hear Noam Chomsky, and the berserk reactions to him, it makes me think of the character of Goldstein in 1984 -- and the berserk reactions to him. Goldstein is Oceania's symbol of all that is evil, and the focus of their daily Two Minute Hates.. when Andrew Sullivan was on Bill Maher's show with Chomsky, Sullivan was one second away from shrieking "Swine!" at him. If Sullivan had done so, he probably would have then -- not having a Newspeak dictionary -- thrown his own poop. It's too bad George Orwell can't come back to life for a moment or two, so he could see characters from his book walking around in 21st century American. Then, if he had an extra second before he had to return to the grave, he could give Andrew Sullivan the finger."

The Butterflies and Wheels.com weekly newsletter actually linked to an article from The New Paper. Heh heh.

Mother Tongue - "What does the fashion for books about the state of the English language tell us? People care about their language because it forms part of their identity, and part of the resistance to changes in English is a resistance to change itself. But correct usage is not an elite affectation; it is a badge of competence"

Chiropractic school angers FSU professors - "The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school."

Why Nerds Are Unpopular - "If you're too cool for school, you're probably not very smart. Some of us would rather build rockets than friendships."

Sex and the Madrasa - "With gang rape in Punjab (cf. the Mukhtaran Bibi case), mass rape in Darfur, female genital mutilation across parts of Muslim Africa, and honor killings of girls in various Arab countries, it would appear to be time for our holier-than-thou sermonizers to introspect a bit and focus on some of their own sexual hang-ups. Add polygamy to the rap sheet, plus the weird Muslim obsession with burqa, chador and hijab; add the yet-weirder cult of the 72 post-mortem virgins, throw in stoning as a punishment for adultery, and then consider burial-alive as a punishment for homosexuality. XXX- rated Qur’anic literacy lessons seem pretty much par for the course in this context. In short, put it all together, and the sexual depravities of “the West” begin to look tame by comparison with what the Muslim world has to offer in the way of polymorphous perverse sexuality."
Published, interestingly enough, by the "Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society"

Waves of destruction wash away belief in God's benevolence - "Even if solutions are forthcoming to these philosophical conundrums, humanely speaking they make little sense. Perhaps that is why some people remain sceptical about the presence of any divine providence ruling over us."
An excellent indictment of Theodicy, partially explaining its immorality and disingenuousness.

Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education - ""If you get a bachelor's degree," the seasoned student reassured, "you'll probably be okay. But my professor said that when you get a master's, and definitely if you go beyond that, you can lose your values. He said that college students have to be watchful because if you get too much education, you could turn-LIBERAL. He's seen it happen to a lot of good Christians."... The Southern Baptist Convention recently considered a proposal to urge all parents to pull their children out of public schools to prevent their exposure to ideas that conservatives may consider "godless" but that are in fact essential. Non-biblical, non-conservative ideas run rampant in fields like medicine, physics, archeology, literature, philosophy, history, astronomy, psychology, theology-in short, everything."

Values or progress? from Perspectives From My Pedestal - "A very pertinent question for the human race is this: is it possible for values and modernity to go hand in hand? If they are NOT mutually exclusive, why do most people persist in thinking so? Is there something in their holy books which forbids progression? And IF we could only choose either between values and modernization, which would it be?"
There's nothing wrong with having 'values'. The problem is when you try to impose your values on others.

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Girl, 10, used geography lesson to save lives - "A 10-year-old girl saved her family and 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami because she had learnt about the giant waves in a geography lesson"

Violent video games pulled from prison - "In fact, the prison's PlayStation offerings included one of the most violent games on the market, "Hitman: Contracts," in which players use everything from meat hooks to silencer-equipped pistols to carry out brutal contract killings."

Bank Machine Distributes Fake Money - "Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, already taking heat for accidentally faxing customers' financial information to a U.S. scrapyard, apologized on Wednesday after one of its cash machines dispensed fake money. Instead of distributing C$20 bills, the machine, located in the Maritime province of New Brunswick, spat out colorful bills used as incentives at Canadian Tire Corp. hardware stores."

Medics again treat mouthwash drinker - "Police responded Sunday afternoon to a call about a Des Moines man who was intoxicated in a unique way: He'd consumed two bottles of mouthwash... Medics who came to the scene said the man has been drinking mouthwash habitually for more than 10 years. Most people would need to be hospitalized after drinking the mouthwash, but the man's body has become so accustomed to it that his vital signs were fine, officers said."

W*USA 9 News - "A woman confronted the clerk at the B-P Station on Bladensburg Road early Saturday morning, after the clerk demanded to see I D for the purchase of cigarettes. She went to the gas pumps and used a lighter to set several fires."

Robbery suspect locks keys in car - "Police described a 26-year-old Gary man as the "world's dumbest criminal" after he locked his keys in the car while allegedly robbing a city convenient store across the street from the police department."

Christmas robbery foiled by stupidity - "About an hour and a half later, Chevron employees again dialed 911 as the familiar red Honda pulled into the parking lot. Persitz and Barela had returned — this time to ask directions out of town. “I guess they got lost,” Playter surmised. “They’re not the brightest bulbs in the closet.”"

Pig not degraded by televised sexual experience, British watchdog rules - "In one of their more delicate rulings of recent years, British television watchdogs ruled that a pig sexually pleasured on television by a minor celebrity did not feel degraded by the experience."

Stewart Loses Contest in Prison - "Martha Stewart, who built a billion-dollar media empire based on her holiday and home decorating tips, was unable to lead her team to victory in a prison decoration contest, a magazine reported."