culture wars

Broadly, conservatism vs progressives / social liberties vs authoritarianism / social justice vs elitist marginalisation.

Quickhit: Background Briefing on Australia’s Looming Internet Censorship

By lauredhel on 2009-03-15

For those interested in Minister Stephen Conroy’s plans to introduce mandatory internet censorship to Australia, check out Wendy Carlisle’s show on the Background Briefing. ABC Radio National: Conroy’s clean feed It’s well-researched, and it explains the issue from square one,… Read More ›

Alcohol and Breastfeeding: NHMRC buys into abstinence-only messaging

By lauredhel on 2009-03-12 • ( 15 )

Last month, I started talking a little bit about alcohol, pregnancy, and abstinence-only messages, in a takedown of one particular study which failed to link alcohol and preterm birth, but said it did. “Bad science on booze in pregnancy: Women… Read More ›

Bad science on booze in pregnancy: Women infantilised with absolutist messages

By lauredhel on 2009-02-24 • ( 51 )

I read this article in The West a little while ago, and it hit my bad-science peeve button. “Half of WA women drink throughout pregnancy“. This beat-up is certainly not alone in drawing conclusions that do not follow from the… Read More ›

Project Steve hits #1000

By tigtog on 2009-02-18 • ( 7 )

Enter one of my favourite creationist-countering initiatives: the USA-based National Centre for Science Education (NCSE) created Project Steve many years ago now, as a response to the people who asked them for a list of actual scientists who do support evolution.

Happy Darwin Day!

By tigtog on 2009-02-12 • ( 1 )

Check out the official Darwin Day website for a list of events etc. In case you haven’t been paying attention, this year is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of… Read More ›

Quickhit: Internet censorship trials to go ahead

By lauredhel on 2009-02-11 • ( 5 )

The Federal Government’s mandatory internet filtering trials, which were scheduled to begin on Christmas Eve 2008, are now set to go ahead. Telstra, Optus, and Iinet, Australia’s three biggest ISPs, are not involved. Half of the ISPs that are involved… Read More ›

I never thought I’d say this

By tigtog on 2009-02-02 • ( 23 )

but in some ways we Aussies are fortunate in our public opiners, despite the regularly boggling bloviations of Bolt, Blair, Devine, Albrechtsen et al: at least

That Ms. Cover

By tigtog on 2009-01-27 • ( 10 )

As no doubt the editors hoped, this cover for Ms. Magazine’s Special Inaugural Issue has generated a lot of controversy. Many feminists feel that Obama’s feminist credentials are not nearly as strong as they could be, while the cover has generated an escalation in panic-mongering and shrill we-told-you-so’s from the religious right plus a great deal more snark about Obamessianic visions and rainbow unicorns from the neocon right.