Airplane child safety seats

Here is an example of how an irrational child safety measure got adopted, even though it cost excessive amounts of money and actually causes more child injuries and deaths.

No prostitute teachers

Oregon public schools do not hire teachers who have been convicted of sex crimes, and the law applies to both men and women. Some people think that this is unfair, because California allows (female) prostitutes to teach school.

Women profit from divorce

John sends this Wash. Times story, and compares it to the widely discredited Lenore Weitzman research.

Women 'worse off' when couples part...

But nearly 30 percent of girlfriends and nearly 38 percent of wives lived in poverty after their relationships failed. The researchers said both wives and girlfriends tend to have lower incomes than their partners and when couples separate, women have less to live on.
Moreover, wives and girlfriends are more likely to have custody of the children, which means more mouths to feed with less income.

Without even looking at the study, I have several problems with it. First, it is based on 20-year-old data, so it does not reflect the high spousal and child support formulas that the states have adopted since then.

Second, the notion that women are "worse off" would not follow from such a study. Suppose a gold digging woman moves in with rich man, or marries. Later, she regrets it, and leaves him. Her income will drop when she leaves him, but she would undoubtedly say that she is better off without him, not worse off.

Studies have shown again and again that it is usually the woman who terminates a marriage or other romantic relationship, and that women consistently make choices that make them better off with less income. Eg, see Warren Farrell's recent book, Why Men Earn More.

Third, it suggests that women are worse off for having to take the kids. In fact, wives usually demand those kids and take them over their husbands' objections. They are taking the kids because they want the kids and they believe that they will be better off with the kids. Furthermore, under current child support formulas, women usually make a profit on the kids. They receive child support that is over and above what it actually costs to raise the kids, and the moms are allowed to spend the child support money on themselves.

So this study is surely just feminist propaganda.

Black parents spank

Here is another goofy anti-spanking argument:

Poussaint, who was a consultant for NBC's "The Cosby Show," says studies show that about 80 percent of parents in the African-American community use corporal punishment. "Despite that, you have very high crime rates, very high rates of violence, very high rates of incarceration. That should be enough of a message that (corporal punishment) doesn't work."

The same reasoning would say that the incarceration doesn't work either.

Here is an anti-spanking zealot who believes that it is wrong to ever hit a child (under the age of 18). He has to struggle hard with the question of whether self-defense is acceptable.

One Nation Under Therapy

I recommend the new book, One Nation Under Therapy -- How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance. More info here. It is an excellent book on the evils of therapism, and documents research studies that show how psychotherapy often makes people worse off. One of the co-authors was just a guest on Tucker Carlson's TV show.

The authors say:

We challenge the brain disease model on the grounds that treating addicts as morally respon-sible, self-determining human beings free to change their behavior is, in the end, more effective, more respectful, and more compassionate.

We also reject therapism's central doctrine that uninhibited emotional openness is essential to mental health. On the contrary, recent findings suggest that reticence and suppression of feelings, far from compromising one's psychological well-being, can be healthy and adaptive. For many temperaments, an excessive focus on introspection and self-disclosure is depressing. Victims of loss and tragedy differ widely in their reactions: some benefit from therapeutic intervention; most do not and should not be coerced by mental health professionals into emotionally correct responses. Trauma and grief counselors have erred massively in this direction.

BTW, Carlson usually has some left-wing political commentator on, but he should be able to find someone better. This time he had Richard Cohen (of the Wash. Post) saying that Bill Clinton had more of a mandate than G.W. Bush. Clinton won with 43% and 49% of the votes, and Bush won with 49% and 51%. The last Democratic president to get more was in 1964.

Bob also recommends Manufacturing Victims: What The Psychology Industry Is Doing To People.

Alabama May Ban Unhealthy Food in Schools

Here is another attempt to ban junk food:

Alabama May Ban Unhealthy Food in Schools

...a health and nutrition committee told the state school board Thursday that the changes -- such as banning the sale of sodas during school hours and cracking down on waivers exempting students from gym -- are crucial to raising healthy young people. ...

Other recommendations presented to the board included: ...

Restrict consumption of high-sugar, low nutrition foods except when they are medically necessary.

I doubt that the committee has any idea what foods are healthy and what are not. There is no such thing as a "high-sugar, low nutrition food".

British medicos want knife control

Some Brits want to ban sharp knives:

The authors of an editorial in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal have called for knife reform. The editorial, "Reducing knife crime: We need to ban the sale of long, pointed kitchen knives," notes that the knives are being used to stab people as well as roasts and the odd tin of Spam. ...

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun control, joked, "Can sharp stick control be far behind?" He said people in his movement were "envious" of England for having such problems. "In America, we can't even come to an agreement that guns are dangerous and we should make them safer," he said.

Yeah, he probably envies the high violent crime rate in Britain that resulted from a gun ban and the lack of a right to self-defense.

Mutant children are best

The UK Sun reports:

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster has spawned a generation of ?mutant? super-brainy children.

Kids growing up in areas damaged by radiation from the plant have a higher IQ and faster reaction times, say Russian doctors.

They are also growing faster and have stronger immune systems.

I think that someone is taking Darwinism too seriously.

Judge tries to control religious upbringing

Another out-of-control family court:

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

Judges seems to think that they can override the wishes of the parents just because there is a divorce. That is wrong, and ought to be unconstitutional. Parents have the right to raise their kids as they wish, whether they are married or divorced.

Pill is a turn-off

Pill news:

The contraceptive pill, celebrated for liberating women's sexuality, may do the opposite, according to American researchers who have warned that women who take the Pill may experience a permanent decline in sexual desire.

Loss of libido is a well-known side-effect of oral contraceptives in some women and is listed in the leaflet on the contraceptive pill handed out by the Family Planning Association. But the research suggests the effect might be long-lasting or even permanent.

It sounds dubious to me, but it could explain a lot.

HBV causes excess male births

A rogue economist says:

Sen claimed that there were some 100 million "missing women" in Asia. While the ratio of men to women in the West was nearly even, in countries like China, India, and Pakistan, there were far more men than women. Sen charged these cultures with gravely mistreating their young girls?perhaps by starving their daughters at the expense of their sons or not taking the girls to doctors when they should have. Although Sen didn't say so, there were other sinister possibilities. Were the missing women a result of selective abortions? Female infanticide? A forced export of prostitutes?

It turns out that half of these supposedly missing women can be explained by a side-effect of hepatitis B.

Child bathtub accidents

NY Times says:

Writing this month in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, researchers from the Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio said that when they looked at bathtub injuries over three years, falls caused by slipping were the most common. And four out of five times, an adult was present.

I wonder if anyone has looked at the possibility that a mom's supervision actually increases bathtub accidents. The child may have a false sense of security by having his mom nearby, and not be sufficiently motivated to take safety precautions.

Women wear wrong bras

This says:

According to a national fit study by Wacoal, eight out of ten women in the U.S. -- or nearly 90 million women over the age of 18 -- are wearing the wrong size bra. ...

Smith recommends that women get fitted once per year or whenever they gain or lose five or more pounds, start or stop an exercise program, become pregnant, and after giving birth.

I figure that it is going to take at least 10,000 man-years of labor to do all those fittings.

Sunshine prevents cancer

New research suggests that sunshine prevents cancer:

In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists believe that "safe sun" - 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen - is not only possible but helpful to health.

"I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," Giovannucci told the cancer scientists. "The data are really quite remarkable."

The pills don't work. You need sunlight.

100 million prescriptions for Vicodin

Last night, on his own network TV show, Dr. Phil said:

In fact, over half of the American population got a prescription for Vicodin last year. That is over 100 million people. As outrageous as it is true, most narcotics can now be obtained without a doctor's prescription.

The screen showed the text: "100 million Americans obtained prescriptions for Vicodin in 2004."

Half the American population would be more like 145M people. But never mind that. Maybe he is counting adults. I didn't believe that so many people got Vicodin prescriptions. Millions more are using the stuff nonmedically.

I just got a Vicodin prescription for my broken leg, but I thought that it was only prescribed for such extreme conditions. Vicodin is a DEA schedule III narcotic.

Readers against fatherphobia

Phyllis writes:

I've just had a chance to count the emails in response to my 4 columns on fathers:

258 - supportive -- mostly dads saying "you described my situation perfectly." Dozens of heartbreaking stories.
9 - hostile
6 - urging me to see both sides of the question because some dads are slobs.
1 - suggesting that my support of fathers is inconsistent with my support of homemakers -- from a bitter feminist who is still mad about my defeating ERA. Somehow it escapes some people that the role of fulltime homemaker is dependent on a husband-father to pay the bills. Unless you are a feminist who thinks the government should provide babysitting.

The above count contrasts sharply with the email response about my evolution column. Those emails were 95% against me.

Phyllis Schlafly is famous for advocating the rights and benefits of (female) homemakers, so there was the possibility that some people would be surprised or offended that she would also advocate an important role for fathers as well.

There is a truly evil anti-father system that has crept into our laws, courts, and govt agencies. Her columns on the subject explain it well. Something desperately needs to be done about it.

Be All That You Can Be

The US Army has fallen short of its recuitment goals, and some people are suggesting that more girls be recruited.

One reader suggests that this is exactly backwards. The slogan is "Be All That You Can Be", and some boys may figure that they cannot be all that they can be in co-ed training and warfare.

There ought to be some quantitative studies on just how girls affect army recruitment.

Father acquitted in paddling of son

News from Ohio:

NEWARK -- Jason Klein and the Rev. Russ Hylton are calling for less government intervention when it comes to disciplining children.

Discipline should be left up to parents, they say.

A jury in Licking County Municipal Court found Klein innocent of a domestic violence charge on May 9. The first-degree misdemeanor charge followed an incident on Nov. 21, when Klein spanked his son, Storm Klein, then 13, with a wooden paddle.

Jason Klein, 36, of Newark, said he spanked his son because he found out he was drinking alcohol. He claims the spanking was a disciplinary measure, and government shouldn't be allowed to tell parents how to raise their children.

"I don't think they should have the right at all," the father of six said. "I think it oversteps the boundary of government." ...

Hylton, a pastor at Crossroads Worship Centre in Newark, where the Klein family attends, believes in spanking as a form of punishment. It helps mold a child into a productive citizen, he said.

He referenced disciplining to the idea in the Bible: "Spare the rod, spoil the child." ...

Storm, a student at Licking Valley Middle School, said he doesn't believe the spanking case should have gone this far.

"I got punished and felt I deserved it," he said.

This is a good example of the need for jury trials. The average person understands child-rearing better than the judges, prosecutors, psychologists, and social service agencies.

The Phantom Menace was not a flop

This NRO review of the new Star Wars movie says:

it wasn't until 1999 that Episode One, The Phantom Menace, appeared, and immediately flopped. A fan of the series told me how he and a friend attended a different movie just in order to catch a trailer for Phantom Menace. They were stunned; "We just couldn't believe how bad it was," he said. It was a bad sign. Just about everybody hated Phantom Menace. It seemed shallow and silly, and squandered the capital previous films had built up.

It would be hard to be more wrong. That movie was the 4th biggest money-grossing movie of all time.

One-night stands

A Cosmopolitan magazine poll found:

Almost two-thirds of women have had a one-night stand, but nearly all of them regret it, a survey has found.

In contrast, men rarely have qualms about brief sexual encounters, and just under half say that no-strings sex is better than that enjoyed in a relationship. ...

But 40 per cent of men say they would have a one-night stand any time and 49 per cent would never regret it.

I'll add this to the list of differences between men and women. As for myself, I am in the 51% of the male population that might possibly regret a one-night stand.