Posts Tagged ‘conservative’
Nagoya Mayor denies historic massacre – Nanjing suspends relations with Nagoya
Nanjing Massacre Museum
Daylife/Reuters Pictures
The Chinese city of Nanjing has suspended its sister-city relationship with Nagoya, Japan, after Nagoya’s mayor expressed doubts that the Japanese Army’s 1937 Nanjing Massacre actually took place…
The falling out began Monday, when Nagoya’s mayor, Takashi Kawamura, told a visiting delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials from Nanjing that he doubted that Japanese troops had massacred Chinese civilians. Most historians say that at a minimum, tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in Nanjing in one of the most infamous atrocities of Japan’s military expansion across Asia in the early 20th century.
The falling out underscored how differing views of history remain a problem in Japan’s ties with the nations that it once conquered. While such denials are common by Japanese conservatives like Mr. Kawamura, they are rarely raised in such a public manner, or directly to Chinese officials…
Still, the Japanese government scrambled to head off a full-blown diplomatic quarrel. The top government spokesman restated Japan’s official position that the massacre did, in fact, take place…
On Wednesday, Mr. Kawamura remained unrepentant, saying that he did not intend to retract the statement or apologize…
Such disagreements between Japan and its neighbors have quieted from the early 2000s, when Junichiro Koizumi, then prime minister, angered many in China and South Korea by visiting the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo that honors Japan’s war dead, included executed war criminals.
I’ve written about this before. People in China haven’t forgotten. Why should I?
Eight years on, Harper tries to end gay marriage in Canada
Harper spends a lot of time in the dark
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
The government is abruptly arguing that the same-sex marriages of many foreigners who wed in Canada are not valid, a move that stunned the gay community and could affect thousands of couples.
In 2005, Canada became one of the first nations in the world to formally legalize gay marriage. Same-sex couples have been marrying in their thousands in Canada, and lenient rules on residency requirements for those seeking a marriage license mean many of them are from abroad.
Ottawa now says many, if not all, the unions involving foreign residents are invalid. It made the argument in a case where two women, one from England and the other from Florida, sought a divorce after their 2005 Canadian marriage…
“(This) is about to, if it hasn’t already, make us look like fools on the international stage,” said Martha McCarthy, a lawyer for the couple at the center of the furor…
“We’re the leaders of gay marriage … and the federal government is saying ‘Oh, yes, sorry, we forgot to mention that for the last nine years we’ve been marrying people that we didn’t think those were valid’,” she told Reuters on Thursday.
Critics blamed the right-of-center Conservative government, which they say wants to roll back social rights such as gay marriage and abortion…
Activists estimate that around 7,500 same-sex couples have married in Canada since 2003, when some provinces first allowed gay marriages. About 2,500 involved were foreigners, many from countries and U.S. states that do not recognize gay unions…
McCarthy said her clients’ message was: “We can’t get divorced in our own jurisdictions because they don’t recognize the validity of our marriage. You guys here in Canada married us so please give us a divorce because no one else will.”
RTFA to keep up on the latest folderol introduced by one more conservative who tries to back out of civil rights because his so-called morals can’t deal with them.
Unless you think Harper and his peers are only worried about convenient divorce.
Warning on oil sands and climate hidden by the Harper government
Internal government documents show that Canada’s scientific and environmental bureaucracy does not share the Conservative government’s view that oil sands projects in Alberta have relatively little negative impact on the environment.
Postmedia News, a publisher that owns several major Canadian newspapers including The National Post in Toronto, obtained the previously confidential material through Canada’s access-to-information laws.
Sex education begins to stir in Chinese elementary schools
Appreciating the feel of weight shift during pregnancy
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
China has long been considered a conservative country where talking about sex is taboo, especially to children.
But things have started to change — slowly.
A report in a local Beijing newspaper about a new sex education textbook for elementary school students — some as young as six-years old — has triggered a heated debate in cyberspace and beyond. The Beijing Times, a popular local tabloid, reported that the textbook, “The Steps of Growth”, explains the concept of sexual intercourse with images and illustrations that some people consider too explicit and graphic…
Some experts in the field even weighed in on the debate. “The content of this text book is not consistent with the children’s cognitive capability of this age,” said Hu Ping, a sex education expert who owns a studio in Shenzhen, southern China, where she gives classes to young students about sex and health…
In contrast, some parents are comfortable with the textbook. “It’s better to teach it to the children earlier than later. The kids nowadays know everything anyway,” said Li Yan, a father with a seven-year-old son.
Education authorities in China’s capital deny the book is a formal textbook to be taught in all the local elementary schools. They say it is only an experiment in some schools.
Nevertheless, in a faxed statement to CNN, they said, “it’s very important to carry out health education, including sex education, to elementary and middle school students.”
RTFA. Looks like the program – as it is implemented – will be more inclusive and broad-based than in parts of the world where religious fears are included in on decisions like this. Maybe not. Maybe the conservative traditions leftover from the Confucianist past will get in the way as thoroughly as might some fundamentalist church.
It still makes me chuckle at how parts of the world dig in their heels and reject knowledge for ideological reasons. My family introduced a book called “The Stork Didn’t Bring You” into my elementary school about a jillion years ago. They went the route of the PTA; but, in fact, there were progressive teachers in our hard-as-nails factory town who were ready and able to ease the door open to sex education.
Except for some raving and ranting at the big Roman Catholic church a mile down the road – it was easy as pie.
This is Norway’s Oklahoma City not Norway’s World Trade Center
Anders Behring Breivik is a conservative Christian who enjoys classical music and the video game World of Warcraft.
Breivik has been named by several Norwegian media outlets as the suspected shooter at a youth camp in Oslo, where 10 80 people were killed Friday and he may be linked to a bombing near the prime minister’s residence that killed seven others.
On his Facebook page, which appears to only have been started July 17, Breivik mostly posted music videos and said his interests include hunting and bodybuilding…
His profile also says he’s a director at a company called Breivik Geofarm.
He lists himself as single and has five profile photos – four of which are headshots…
A Twitter account is also being linked to Breivik, although there is just one tweet on July 17.
“One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests,” he wrote.
The television station TV 2 in Norway reported Breivik had right-wing extremist tendancies and had two guns registered under his name.
The headline is from some unnamed official who was asked about “international” terrorism.
Define liberal brains by complexity, conservative brains by fear
This is going to sound sort of obvious, but here we go: A study from University College London published this week in Current Biology has discovered that there are actually differences in the brains of liberals and conservatives. Specifically, liberals’ brains tend to be bigger in the area that deals with processing complex ideas and situations, while conservatives’ brains are bigger in the area that processes fear.
According to the report: “We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala.”
People with larger amygdalae respond to perceived threats with more aggression and “are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions.” The anterior cingulate cortex, however, “monitors uncertainty and conflict.” “Thus,” says the report, “it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views.”
The question remains about sorting the cause-and-effect relationship between ideology and brain structure. Could be that liberal open-mindedness helps the brain grow in complexity – and conservatives habit of cowering behind ideology bloats their right amygdala.
Thanks, Mary Lupin
Lord Patten’s TV guide
Hint: he ain’t the guy who’s armed
Lord Patten, the incoming BBC Trust chairman, has said he hardly ever watches television. What better qualification for the job? At least Patten won’t be weighed down by the burden of knowing what television programmes people are referring to, or what television programmes are supposed to look like, or how to switch a television on and off properly. He can be a fresh pair of eyes.
But on the off chance Patten does decide to try and learn something about TV before he starts in the role, here’s a beginner’s guide to watching television, especially for him.
Television: The box in the corner of your living room covered in three inches of dust.
Daytime: Programming broadcast throughout traditional office hours…
Soaps: An ongoing, episodic drama series. Named because everyone on EastEnders looks like they could do with a good wash.
Watershed: This is the time of day after which it is deemed acceptable to broadcast content that viewers of a sensitive disposition may find disturbing such as sex, bad language, violence or cricket highlights.
Jumping the shark: A phrase used to describe the moment that a programme stops being good…
Some of this will only be understood east of the Big Pond. And by those of us west of the Big Pond who are addicted to proper football.
The event of this fool being appointed to oversee public broadcasting in the UK reminds us once again that the main qualification for conservatives to serve the nation – is belonging to the proper club, having attended the right school and an affinity for hundred-dollar haircuts.
I’m reminded of “Brownie” – appointed by George W. Bush to run FEMA, the emergency aid providers – essentially on the basis of the quasi-respectable job he did at selling overpriced horses.
GOP hopefuls copout on Hispanic forum
We haven’t the time to speak to our little brown brothers
It was billed, in part, as a forum for the 2012 Republican presidential field to speak directly to Hispanics — a replica of the vaunted Conservative Political Action Conference, but tailored to the fastest-growing slice of the electorate.
Yet, when former Gov. Jeb Bush, former Sen. Norm Coleman and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez open the first Hispanic Leadership Network conference next month in Miami, the only potential presidential candidate confirmed to attend — so far — is Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declined the invite. So did South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Texas Gov Rick Perry.
Newt Gingrich is “amenable” to attending but hasn’t committed yet, his spokesman said.
And others in the group, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, didn’t respond to inquiries from POLITICO.
A poor showing could raise doubts about the commitment of Republicans to court Hispanics, one of the open-ended questions of the 2012 presidential cycle.
Jim Landry, spokesman for the American Action Network, which created the Hispanic group, said the organizers extended invites to the entire presidential field, but it was never the main reason for holding the conference…
Yet another “grassroots” organization created, bought and paid for by Republican corporate Anglos. Ready to assume the mantle of “spontaneous” conservative resurgence, an Hispanic Tea Party. Hogwash!
Although it is worth a chuckle or two to follow the ill-logic of neocon Republicans, e.g., we didn’t need Hispanics [or Blacks or women] to takeover the House in 2010. We get to gerrymander state voting districts before 2012; so, we’ll control more state legislatures before 2012. So what if we piss off Hispanic voters by screwing them out of representation?
Republicans have no concern about grassroots resentment over bigots who ignore the needs and desires of minority populations. Lip service ain’t gonna cut it on the battlefield of the next presidential election in 2012. Or 2016 for that matter.
Tory snob claims welfare encourages poor to breed
A new Conservative peer has claimed that Coalition changes to the welfare system will encourage “breeding” among those on benefits.
Howard Flight, a former Tory MP, made the comments just days after being given a peerage by David Cameron. Downing Street moved swiftly to distance itself from the remarks.
Mr Flight, who has yet to be ennobled, was asked in an interview about changes to the child benefit system which will see top rate taxpayers no longer receiving the state-hand-out.
The father of three told the Evening Standard: “We’re going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it’s jolly expensive…But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that’s not very sensible.”
His comments come a week after David Cameron was infuriated by comments from Lord Young in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. The peer was forced to resign as a Downing Street adviser after referring to the “so-called recession” and people never having it “so good.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Howard Flight has shown himself to be an insensitive throwback to the worst of 1980s politics within days of being made a peer by the Prime Minister.
“This is exactly the kind of remark that leads to political parties being thought of as nasty, and shows just how shockingly out of touch with the lives of ordinary low and middle-income people some supporters of this Government can be.”
See. Sarah Palin and thugs like Jim Dement aren’t alone in the world. There’s no shortage of class-based 19th Century ideologues across the pond. Though we tend to specialize more in the populist phonies.
Tory politician arrested for Twitter joke – about stoning
An English politician was arrested on Thursday for joking on Twitter that a columnist he disagreed with should be stoned to death.
Gareth Compton, a 38-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party who serves in local government in Birmingham, was suspended by the party following his arrest, Britain’s Press Association reported…
During a discussion of Mr. Cameron’s criticism of the Chinese government for human-rights abuses, Ms. Alibhai-Brown said that any British politician who supported the Iraq war lacked the moral authority to lecture other nations. Mr. Compton then posted his mock plea for her execution by stoning…
Mr. Compton then removed his attack on Ms. Alibhai-Brown and wrote on his now-deleted account:
I did not ‘call’ for the stoning of anybody. I made an ill-conceived attempt at humour in response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown saying on Radio 5 Live this morning that no politician had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran. I apologize for any offence caused. It was wholly unintentional.
Writing about the incident in a blog post for a decidedly anti-Conservative British magazine, The New Statesman, George Eaton called the arrest, “an extraordinarily disproportionate response.”
It goes round and round. The nutball Tory had to pick on a Muslim woman who has previously been threatened by the fatwa brigade. Then, he apologizes. The question of being silly enough to arrest him – is separate from his stupidity.
We’ve finally gotten away from American racists joking about lynching Black politicians, Black activists, civil rights activists – in public, anyway. Doesn’t mean they were ever arrested for it.
