Friday 22nd of November 2024

not the world at large...

not the world at large

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says comments he made about when a woman should lose her virginity were meant only as advice for his three daughters.

When asked by the Australian Women's Weekly in a wide-ranging interview published today what advice he would give his daughters on sex before marriage, Mr Abbott replied that he would advise them not to give away their virginity lightly.

"I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question ... it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don't give it to someone lightly," he said.

The interview sparked an attack from Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard who said women do not want to be lectured by Mr Abbott and his comments will confirm their "worst fears" about him.

But Mr Abbott has told 2GB Radio that he was not talking to the "world at large" and Ms Gillard "obviously hasn't read the piece".

"I was trying to honestly answer a series of questions and as the parent of teenage kids I wrestle with these things, I think all parents do," he said.

"The last thing would want to do is impose my views on the wider world. But in my position I think I've got to be honest and upfront about what my views are."

Mr Abbott admitted his comments, which have been widely reported, had already got him into trouble.

Vatican roulette, shagabout...

Mr Abbott, who thought (wrongly) that he had fathered a child with a girlfriend, said he had a chequered past and ''I don't claim to be any kind of exemplar of virtue''. On the rare occasions he got into discussions with his daughters, aged from 20 to 16, about appropriate behaviour, ''I start to get on my high horse … they say: 'Dad, you did all of those things' and, of course, they're right. I did.''

Comedian Fiona Scott-Norman said that if one were to look in the dictionary under ''hypocrite'', there would be a picture of Mr Abbott. ''Yet another self-acknowledged one-time drug-taking, 'Vatican roulette' playing, shagabout, white, middle-aged male telling young women not to do what he did when he was their age.

''The irony is that the one thing guaranteed to make ''young people'' do something is for a pompous tosspot like Tony to tell them not to. He's just guaranteed that the current crop of Australian virgins will be plucked like a Christmas turkey by next weekend.''

virtue, value and politics...

Deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop has upped the ante in the row over Tony Abbott's virginity comments, accusing her opposite number Julia Gillard of "confected moral outrage" and contrasting the issue with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's visit to a New York strip club in 2003.

Yesterday shadow attorney-general George Brandis said Ms Gillard was not qualified to comment on Mr Abbott's advice to his young daughters because she had chosen not to have children herself.

"She just doesn't understand the way parents think about their children when they reach a particular age," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister fired back, saying Senator Brandis's comments proved he was out of touch with modern Australians.

Once characterised as "deliberately barren" by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, Ms Gillard said she was well used to comments from the Liberals about her personal life.

"I've lived through these moments before," she told AM.

"It doesn't make any difference to me these kind of statements from Liberal politicians and I suspect in the minds of many Australians it just reinforces yet again just how out of touch they are with modern Australians.

Ms Bishop then appeared on ABC News Breakfast to accuse Ms Gillard of double standards.

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If Ms Gillard has "double standards", I'd say Ms Bishop has quadruple standards with pikes and a few twists... The problem with parents is some were teenageers on the rampage once and they know blah blah... See toon at top.

What a horrible group of sub-Australians?

George Brandis is a pompous, arrogant and obviously incompetent Barrister, who has yet again, led the "gutter snipe" Liberals into an attack on a woman who has earned the honor of being the first female acting Prime Minister of Australia.

Tony Abbott is, and has always been, considered as the most outspoken male Chauvinist in Australian politics. As a non-Roman Catholic I support Kevin Rudd but by any measure of commonsense I would never support the Mad Monk - even if Cardinal Pell does what so many RC priests are want to do - advertise from the pulpit. Shades of Santa Maria and Cardinal Mannix in the Democratic Labor Party shambles.

Would a religion really take over a nation?  Read your history.

And what can be said about Julie Bishop?  For any of the Howard "brood" to talk about "double standards" must be a perfect example of hypocrisy.  

And now a small critique of Australia in the 21 century …

I do not support "gender war" and never will - it is too divisive.

I do not support religion and the executive being inclusive as do the Conservatives. The poor, ravished and drug controlled South American countries can testify to the results of that abuse as nurtured by the CIA/Vatican.

I oppose with all my heart the abuse of right and wrong being perpetrated in occupied Palestine.  (There but for the grace of God goeth I?)

So recently, we in Australia, got rid of a person who abused every modicum of independency that Australia ever had, and in so doing he achieved our first pre-emptive - choice motivated war against an innocent nation - while knowingly lying as to the reason - then boasted that our SAS killed Iraqis even before the illegal invasion. Something for him to tell his grandchildren?  If not - I hope I can.

While the conundrum with which our service personnel often have to face - kill or be killed - take no prisoners - "he could paddle across the ocean and attack our women" - then the so-called "fair and just" decisions of the Nuremburg defense means that while the victors, who practiced that obedience, where feted - while those who honorably lost the war were executed for the same reasons. 

John once said that fascism is fascism and I agree - wrong is wrong.

So, with all of the special effects in our entertainment industry - are we being controlled by aliens who can dictate rules for the underlings which can vary according to which "planet" they belong?

We are a mess of continually selective non-compliance with the laws of civilization - the exercise of which is currently governed by the alien "In God we Trust" hypocrites.  Fair dinkum.

In short - there is no equally enforceable rule of law - or for that matter - civilized behavior.

The greed for ultimate financial control is still the motivation of all crimes in the world.  And the cost of that is paid for by the inquality of the lives of those who are forced into any employment to survive.  Including the military.

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

 

 

 

 

speeding up the clock on puberty

A new study finds that girls are more likely today than in the past to start developing breasts by age 7 or 8.

The research is just the latest in a flood of reports over the last decade that have led to concern and heated debate about whether girls are reaching puberty earlier, and why it might be happening.

Increased rates of obesity are thought to play a major role, because body fat can produce sex hormones. Some researchers also suspect that environmental chemicals that mimic the effects of estrogen may be speeding up the clock on puberty, but that idea is unproved.

The issue is of concern for both medical and psychosocial reasons. Studies suggest that earlier puberty, as measured by the age at first menstruation, can slightly increase the risk of breast cancer, probably because it results in longer lifetime exposure to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which can feed some tumors.

Although the new study did not look at menstrual age, breast growth is also a sign of hormone exposure, and some researchers fear that early development might also mean an increased cancer risk.

Socially and emotionally, life can be difficult for a girl who has a child’s mind in a woman’s body and is not ready to deal with sexual advances from men and boys, or cope with her own hormone-spiked emotions and sexual impulses.

“Our analysis shows clearly that the white participants entered puberty earlier than we anticipated,” said Dr. Frank M. Biro, the first author of the study and the director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Not to mention sex education and saucy TV shows that could spark the brain to activate puberty earlier... see toon at top...