tcpip | Islamophobia, A Bill of Rights, Climate Riots, Stripping Minors, and a Hobbit fest

Sunday consisted of two great presentations at the local Unitarian Church. Bilal Cleland, the Human Rights Coordinator of the Islamic Council spoke on religious bigotry and particularly on bigotry against Muslims. Cleland was a great speaker - particularly noting how Muslims have become the marginalised 'other' in Australian society, a position previously held by SE Asian people, and how there is a populist assumption that does not differentiate between Muslim fundamentalists and Muslim secularists. Cleland also drew attention to the long history of Unitarian support for religious freedom.

Following that the Church conducted a public forum on the need for an Australian Bill of Rights, with Jess Healy, the Democrats youth spokesperson, Brian Walters, the legal spokesperson for the Greens, and Greg Connellan, President of the Victorian Council of Civil Liberties. I toned down the great sense of optimism at the forum by reminding those present that there are many people who do not support universal human rights and such people have resources which they will use against any campaign to introduce such rights.

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

More at the UK's The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153530,00.html

Record this moment. I agree with Kennet and Doyle. A bailout to dodgy transport companies is not the solution.

http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2004/02/19/1077072779093.html
Tram, train subsidy doubles

And I reckon Martin Ferguson has it right too. You don't lie to the electorate if you want to be re-elected.

http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2004/02/21/1077072891949.html
Key seats at risk and toll debacle to blame: ALP

I'm so glad I don't work for the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party anymore.

Sometimes when you operate from principles rather than feelings you have to support things that you may not be entirely comfortable with. Argue against this - from first principles.

http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2004/02/21/1077072892905.html
Loophole allows stripteasing minors

Erudito has alerted me to those who just can't get enough Hobbits. All three LOTR films in the same session. The Sun Cinema Yarraville is doing it every day until March 3. Which would seem to make Saturday 28 (or Sunday 29) The Day to do it. Fellowship starts at 10am.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I agree that adulthood has become more of a social concept than a biological one, but that's more of an indication of human society - and more specifically social systems - restricting rights. The neurological and biological facts of the difference between adult and child haven't changed.

I think you are absolutely correct over your statement concerning guardians and with the statement that competence and emotional maturity is not measured in birthdays. In the latter instance, I can certainly provide backup research material of the extreme variation in cognitive and moral reasoning in young adults.

Biologically 'adulthood' is easy once everyone can agree on a defined point - ability to reproduce? ability to understand hierachy? ability to apply free will? ability to walk and talk? (OK, that last one is a little premature but in some periods, once you could stand on your own two feet you had to - childhood as a phase of life is a notion). What happens inside our brains/bodies perhaps hasn't changed but they way we deal with them has; we repress, fight against and try to change things before they have a chance to properly develop - thus increased confusion.

Research on brain waves and cognition is good, it helps connect the patterns of predictable behaviour and counteract some of the less acceptable actings-up. Experience in child care has been my research. Their cognitive development is not only determined by thier own motivation but by the examples provided for them - moral reasoning is both internal instinct and external expectation. I would be interested to see what others have 'officially' come up with. Concur! Spent a lot of time in the nature/nurture debate (don't start!!) :))

I tend towards the cognitive science approach - Piaget and Kohlberg in particular and the emphasis on formal operations. They note of course that the capacity to engage in formal operations has a neurological basis which equates with post-pubescent states, but they also note that most people don't use it. 'For environmental reasons' Kohlberg wryly notes...

Two names I haven't heard in a while!
But then for most of our lives we only use 45% of our brains (do I have that right?????) - and the amount of graymatter we actually engage in operational activities decreases as we get older - peaking at roughly 36-46 months old??!!! My stat's are old and probably off, but you get the gist!
So if brain activity/function is related to adulthood, we are responsible about age 4, and geriatric about 10 (just before things start to get really interesting with the physical body and the emotional impact of 'childhood' sets in!

It's not the amount of gray matter that is used, but the connections made that is critically important. For example, in early childhood (as Piaget showed through numerous experiments) a perceptual change in quantity is treated as a real change in quantity. Likewise they do not understand ordinal or cardinal properties of a number, they confuse spatial and temporal parameters, they have no idea about Euclidean coordinates and.. (this is the important one)

they don't understand the difference between moral reasons and arbritrary rules...

Agreed, the links are the important parts ... grasping conceptual into real is pivotal in cognitive learning (even as a grown woman I have difficulty with spatial!) - eg: how do we even learn what 'three' is?; however I would beg to differ re: arbitrary rules - there is a certain amount of experience required for moral reaosning, but the look in their eyes often negates the theory that they 'don't know what they're doing' - they are often testing to see at what point their light comes on!!
My formal study of this seems light years ago - do you have a site for piaget that I could check out (if I wasn't dancing every night I would rummage through the boxes of developmental pyschology texts!)? this is spot on with your PhD, yes???

but the look in their eyes often negates the theory that they 'don't know what they're doing'

True, the existential philosopher Sartre made significant mileage out of the concept of 'the look' as empirical evidence of 'the Other'. Hardly what one could use though for formal justifications, tho'...

This is a good introduction to Piaget

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/piaget.html

and Kohlberg

http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm

I also am a firm believer in 'the look'! Sartre and I finally agree on something :))

Enjoy the hobbits-overload if you decide to subject yourself ... perhaps see you in a couple of weeks!

Islamophobia, A Bill of Rights, Climate Riots, Stripping Minors, and a Hobbit fest

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors

Re: Adulthood and stripteasing minors