Monday, December 16, 2013



Ethnic minorities flock to Britain's most conservative political party  -- UKIP

And Leftists are outraged to be losing their clients

Lefties are a funny breed, especially when it comes to their self-righteousness and perceived monopoly on certain sections of the society.

Last Saturday The Times published an extensive article on the rapid rise in the support for UKIP amongst ethnic minorities. The article, entitled “The new faces of UKIP”, covered some prominent party members including Winston McKenzie, UKIP’s spokesman for the Commonwealth. This clearly infuriated quite a few Labour trolls who in pursuit of revenge piled onto the newly set up Facebook profile of the Friends of Poland in UKIP with some rather incoherent spam.

In particular, a lot of hate for the Friends of Poland in UKIP seems to have been orchestrated by HopeNotHate.org, who under the false pretence of being an anti-hate campaigners, are basically another one of Labour’s assumed online identities with a special nag for trolling all things UKIP.

Friends of Poland in UKIP was recently set up with a couple of Old Wellingtonians at the helm: the writer and seasoned member of UKIP, Nikolai Tolstoy, as Honorary Patron, and the UK Representative of the Confederation of the Polish Nobility and a former committee member of the Conservative Friends of Poland, Przemek Skwirczynski, as the Chairman. The group’s aim is to preserve the spirit of British-Polish camaraderie dating back to the days of Second World War, EU or no EU.

It is funny that most of the insinuations in Labour trolls’ posts were to do with accusations of UKIP’s “anti-Polishness”, which is why it is perhaps worth reminding the sections of Labour supporters who are suffering short-term memory loss, that Ed Miliband famously declared that Labour “got it wrong” over the East European immigration, which certainly was no slip of his tongue, given that Jack Straw reiterated that stance on immigration as recently as last month.

So with both the Labour Friends of Poland and Conservative Friends of Poland now defunct, the officially-approved Friends of Poland in UKIP has a good case to make that UKIP is the last party formally in support of the Polish minority in the UK, and yet more proof that you do not have to support Labour just because you happen to belong to an ethnic minority.

SOURCE





Fatherlessness Harms the Brain, Neurobiologists Find

Kids need dads, according to a neurobiological study published this month in the journal Cerebral Cortex. The absence of fathers during childhood may lead to impaired behavioral and social abilities, and brain defects, researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, found.

"This is the first time research findings have shown that paternal deprivation during development affects the neurobiology of the offspring," senior author Dr. Gabriella Gobbi told MUHC News.

Other studies have observed that children raised without fathers are more likely to demonstrate a number of risk factors, such as substance abuse. There are a large number of environmental factors, though, that could contribute to those risk factors, so previous studies have had difficulty demonstrating that the absence of fathers directly contributes to social and behavioral difficulties.

To better control the environment, the MUHC researchers studied the effects of fatherlessness on mice.

"Although we used mice, the findings are extremely relevant to humans," Gobbi said. "We used California mice which, like in some human populations, are monogamous and raise their offspring together."

"Because we can control their environment, we can equalize factors that differ between them," Dr. Francis Bambico added. "Mice studies in the laboratory may therefore be clearer to interpret than human ones, where it is impossible to control all the influences during development."

The researchers found that the mice raised without a father had abnormal social interactions and were more aggressive, compared to the mice raised with a father. The effects were stronger among daughters than sons.

Being raised without a father actually changed the brains of the test subjects. The research found defects in the brain's prefrontal cortex, which controls social and cognitive functions, of the fatherless mice.

Bambico and Gobbi were joined on the study, "Father Absence in the Monogamous California Mouse Impairs Social Behavior and Modifies Dopamine and Glutamate Synapses in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex," by Dr.'s Baptiste Lacoste and Patrick R. Hattan.

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The politics of empirical truths
 
Having spent the last 14 years working for public policy think tanks in Australia and Britain, I have become increasingly frustrated by the 'stupidity and baseness' of politicians who refuse to acknowledge awkward empirical truths. Even when, occasionally, a politician summons up the courage to tell people facts they would rather not hear, he or she immediately comes under pressure to withdraw their comment, and even apologise for it. 

Rod Liddle recently offered one example in the UK edition of The Spectator. He highlighted an apology issued by the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, who had warned of a culture of 'endemic corruption' in certain Asian countries (notably Pakistan) from which many British ethnic minorities originate. As Liddle showed, Grieve's warning was fully justified, for Pakistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and the UK Electoral Commission has expressed concern about bribery and vote-buying in certain Pakistani communities in Britain. But although he was right, Grieve issued a grovelling apology.

This problem of thought crime and self-censorship is not limited to issues of race and ethnicity. It extends to discussion of gender and class differences too.

Last week, for example, a UKIP Member of the European Parliament, Stuart Agnew, was censured by his own party after claiming that men outnumber women in top jobs partly because many women choose child-rearing over career building. But he was right. A 2009 survey found only 12% of British mothers want to work full-time, and a 2008 report found two-thirds of working mums would still want to reduce their hours even if improved child care were made available. In Norway, where mothers can choose between free child care (if they continue working) or cash payments in lieu (if they raise their children at home), four-fifths choose to stay home.

Again last week, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, landed in hot water for pointing out that one reason upward social mobility is not more extensive is that some people lack the intelligence needed to perform high-level jobs. Again, he's right - this is something I have been documenting for the last 20 years, and Boris is the first prominent politician in all that time to acknowledge it. But in politics, evidence is often irrelevant. Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, attacked Boris for his 'unpleasant, careless elitism,' Cameron hastily distanced himself from him, and the BBC and newspaper journalists declared open season on him for several days afterwards.

Max Weber wouldn't have been surprised by any of this. He taught that political leadership is about charisma, the mobilisation of emotion among your followers. Evidence can be left to faceless bureaucrats. Populist leaders in search of votes work on sentiment.

If like the CIS, you are in the business of shifting policy agendas through appeal to evidence and reason, this emphasis on emotion and sentiment can represent a major frustration. But as Weber concluded in his Munich lecture: 'Only he who in the face of all this can say 'In spite of all!' has the calling for politics.'

SOURCE




Book on 'submissive wives' becomes hit in Spain

A book advising newly-wed women on how to be "submissive" has become a publishing phenomenon in Spain while outraging feminists who have called for it to be banned.

The polemic book by married Italian author Costanza Miriano titled 'Cásate y sé sumisa – Get Married and Be Submissive – was published by the Catholic Arbishopric of the southern city of Granada in November and soared up the bestseller list.

The book, which was a bestseller in Italy, preaches a message of "loyal obedience, generosity and submission" on the part of the new wife and offers nuggets of advice for the newly-wed on how to please one's husband.

The book currently appears at number 15 on the Amazon bestseller list in Spain but has raised the hackles of modern-minded Senoras who even staged a public demonstration against the tome, where they tore up copies.

Women's groups are considering legal action to get it banned arguing that it promotes gender violence.

One passage suggests: "We [women] like humiliation because it is for a greater good."

The author claims the book is based on the teachings of St Paul and that a perfect wife should be submissive.

"It's true, you're not yet an experienced cook or a perfect housewife," she writes. "What's the problem if he tells you so? Tell him that he is right, that it's true, that you will learn. On seeing your sweetness and your humility, your effort to change, this will also change him.

Granada's Archbishop Francisco Javier Martinez, who chose to publish the book has defended its content and insists that the furore surrounding it is "ridiculous and hypocritical" in a society that allows abortion, which he argues is a much clearer example of violence against women.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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