News Roundup.
- An interesting article in response to California's SB777 discusses a new call issued by the Campaign for Children and Families: remove your children from the public school system. A spokesman for another organization, the Exodus Mandate, was quoted as saying "If traditional minded people abandon that system in enough numbers, it will implode. By leaving your children there as a Christian you're exposing them to extreme moral danger. You can't immunize them with a few hours of Bible study during the week."
- A Norwegian pre-school teacher and a load of child psychologists have published their ideas that kindergartners should be encouraged to play sex games. A "vast majority" of Norwegians send their children to pre-school from the age of one until they start school at age six. It's during this period that the report argues children should learn about sexuality in terms I will not quote here. They can go ahead and call me "disturbed by children's sexuality" -- I can live with that criticism. Read more.
- A bad news story out of Iraq I could never dream up: a story complaining that, because the death toll is falling, cemetary workers aren't making as much money. I read the whole story because I wondered if they were completely serious...and yes, they were. How greatly must you be committed to bad news in Iraq to spin a good story like the falling death toll into bad economic news? Read more.
- A new study seeks to identify a "gay" gene by focusing on DNA samples from 1,000 pairs of gay brothers. One such pair, the Cabreras, "hope the findings will help silence critics who say homosexuality is an immoral choice." Once again I say, even if a genetic predisposition is found <which is still highly doubtful>, it doesn't change the idea of personal responsibility. There are genetic predispositions to any number of conditions -- alcoholism, for one -- yet we still hold people responsible for making their own choice. Read more.
