Where are we headed…

Unfortunately, Life sometimes throws alot of stuff at you at once and this has happened to me. My days and nights are alot busier at present as is Echo’s. Therefore I’m going to be taking a break for a little whilst from the blog. Posting that is. I’m happy for you to send me your posts if you’d like to keep posting, and I’ll comment as per the posts. But for now, I’m just too busy.  In the near future however, perhaps we can continue on. There are things that I’d personally like to get going such as the anti-pornography group. However, I’ll need some time for the moment to accomplish all the tasks I have on hand for the beginning of this university year.  Thanks to all your posting. It’s been very interesting to say the very least.

The Sexual Revolution gone haywire…

Echo sent me this nice article by Miranda Devine that I think is worthy of us discussing. I’ve edited some bits but please don’t get offended by some of the wording. I think that Miranda is making an extremely valid and intelligent point in a world where shunning the sexual revolution is a no-no.

Newly bald Britney Spears has checked herself back into rehab after a weekend of excessive partying and unsavoury exhibitionism, just another young woman self-destructing in front of our eyes.

There has been no sign of the 25-year-old singer’s two young sons amid the crotch-flashing, mascara-smeared, vomit-specked nightclubbing that preceded her impulsive head-shave at a Los Angeles salon – an act psychologists have interpreted as an existential cry for help.

But Spears’s meltdown is more than just her personal tragedy. Sexualised almost since her days as a Disney child star, she is the canary in the coalmine of troubled young womanhood.

As other celebrity car crashes – Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith – pile up, it is clear something is terribly wrong with the fairer sex.

Spears inhabits the same space, her increasingly desperate exhibitionism, non-stop inebriation and casual couplings with numerous forgettable men chronicled in lascivious detail by gossip websites and magazines. We have so normalised self-destructive slutty behaviour that Spears’s antics were considered the natural reaction of a young woman letting down her hair after a marriage breakdown.

Until it all got too much. One witness to the shearing scene claimed Spears said she was shaving her hair off because she was “sick of people touching her”. One psychologist said the act was an attempt to repel male attention.

In a world saturated with pornography, when women treat themselves like sluts, why would men treat them any differently? Mutual respect between the sexes, romance and a legacy of chivalry by men entranced by the feminine mystique have been trashed in the name of female equality and sexual liberation.

Now Valentine’s Day, once a time for love hearts, flowers and romantic cards, has been hijacked by radical feminists in the United States as V-Day – either a day to celebrate vaginas or to raise awareness of violence against women.

And judging by Cleo magazine, a one-night stand is almost elaborate courtship. Next month’s Cleo catalogues a new sex trend: “The curiosity shag: dying to know what he’s like in bed? This could be the way to find out. No strings attached.” But the problem is, with women, there invariably are emotional strings attached to sexual encounters.

Evolutionary psychology is providing confirmation of what most people instinctively know – men are hard-wired to want more sex than women, more casual sex, more often, and with more partners, because there is an evolutionary advantage to spreading their sperm far and wide and fathering lots of children.

Women, who need nine months to produce a child, have no such biological imperative, goes the theory. Instead they are hard-wired to form emotional attachments with a male who will protect them and their children.

Launching straight into sex before even the first date was a hallmark of the sexual revolution, a way women could emulate men and jettison the emotional baggage of romantic love that had supposedly held them back for generations.

But no matter how hard they try to live up to the old feminist ideal of “zipless f—s”, invariably women get hurt.
Take the celebrated “mile high club” scandal on Qantas. A flight attendant, Lisa Robertson, has told how she initiated sex with the actor Ralph Fiennes on a flight from Darwin to Mumbai, leading him into a toilet cubicle for a quickie.

“I’m going to have to kick you out now,” Fiennes said suavely after a later rendezvous in his hotel room, according to the account of events she sold to the Daily Mail newspaper. “See you on the next Qantas flight.” But for a woman who seems to embody the liberated female’s attitude to casual sex, Robertson seemed overly concerned with feelings.

She said she had hoped the relationship would continue and was “hurt and disappointed” that Fiennes wouldn’t support her when she was sacked. To Robertson “the experience was a lot more than just about sex”. But men are wired differently. No amount of brainwashing and SNAG-ification will change that.

A study released this week by the American Psychological Association warned of the psychological harm being done to women by the increasing sexualisation of society.

“Sexualisation of girls is a broad and increasing problem,” said the study, and it could cause psychological and physical harm to young women and girls as young as four. Imagery of “sexed-up” little girls and women posing as adolescents could lead to depression, eating disorders and poor academic performance.

If you ever needed proof that women were the losers in the sexual revolution here it is. It is time women seized back their inner prude.

The Maddening Mass Media Two….

Oh dear the Media are at it again. This time it’s a battle between Shappelle’s Mum and her daughters supposed best friend. Wah wah wah…is all I heard. But surprisingly enough, I hear people talking about it away from the tele. More than this however, and perhaps more annoyingly, I hear church people talk about it.  Tony Squires did a fairly nice piece on this in his opinion column.

Forgive me for being cynical, but I really don’t give a hoot about whether Corby’s Mother think’s her daughters friend is lying or not. What I care about is whether Global Warming is a reality or not. Whether Rudd is a good leader or not. Whether the US is going to invade Iran or not. And so should the rest of this country.

Yet Two million Australians tuned into that rubbish this week. IF we want to know where political, social and moral complacency comes from, look no further.  Whatever you do for the rest of this year, I urge you to boycott Today Tonight and A Current Affair….

Political Backflipping…

First of all let me apologise for not keeping up to date. It’s been a hectic month for me.

Now to business. Political Backflipping receives an awful lot of condemnation from the media. In some cases I can understand why, but not when it serves no purpose. And in certain cases, the opposition party tends to jump on it and use it to deflect public discussion on more pressing matters.

I’ve noticed this just recently with the alienation of Peter Garrett’s sentiments towards US bases in Australia. Whilst I have little opinion towards the issue itself, I do see however how his change of heart has sparked the media frenzy.

(Click here for the story) 

Now I don’t know if his change of heart is right or wrong, or whether it was subjection the ALP party politics or not, the thing that this story sparks to me is how the media loves to come down hard on political backflipping. It also shows me how personal criticisms often deflect policy debate. And this happens on both sides of politics and at all levels….

Guest post from Stewart

I found a very flash presentation (about 7min I think) called the Philosophy of Liberty that I found quite interesting.http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PhilosophyOfLiberty-IHS.swf

It is also interesting as you can apply modern events to the ideas that are presented.

I would be interesting to see what the Aus LDS read think about it.

Cheers

Stewart

The Television fast!

To those who are with me on this one, I thought that we could post some of the results here. Remember this week is the week for the challenge. Can you last one whole week without television? I think it’ll be cool to let everyone know what doing this has freed time up to do….ie how much time have you discovered for other things?

Good luck everyone!

Free chit chat….

This thread I will post for free chit chat of any kind. What’s on your mind fellow Smoot Mates?

I.D. Cards…what’s next?

I’m all for national security. In these perilious times where I could be seriously hurt by a flying banana at the Cricket when the Mexican wave storms by, or when someone decides to plant a grade 2 nuclear weapon in my napsack at the train station, I think it’s in our best interest to upgrade the laws. No sarcasm intended. But something that I am aware of is identity theft. It is a problem I agree. But is a national identity card taking it to the extreme?

Bronwyn Bishop appears to think so. I find her comments that the ‘Nazi’s would have used this to round up the Jews’ particularly interesting. But to a degree, she has a point. There is two sides to this story. One is Fraud prevention and control, the other national security. I’m all for the first, but not so much the latter. Now we’ve been assurred that this is only to minimise risk and produce a more mainstream whole of government approach to running human services. But it also provides a level of check not previously afforded to the state.  This is something that I am not so crash hot on. In a day and age where we are overregulated in this country, I fear that more regulation will bring inevitable discontent or complete apathy. Prominent thinker Max Weber thought that the Iron Cage of Bureaucracy would turn everyone into robots. I also heard some UK journalists who were out here on the ashes tour suggest that Australia is one of the most overregulated countries on the planet. Now that may be a bit of an overstatement, but it does ring some truth to me. We are regulated enough in everything we do. Perhaps a National ID card is only opening the door way for more regulation and more checking on the things we engage in. Thoughts?

A break

FYI, I’m taking a break from the blog for a little while. I’ve enjoyed the various discussions, but at times I’ve seen my views misrepresented and distorted, which is less fun. Perhaps various world issues inflame us so much that we unwittingly direct our frustrations at other blog participants. As such, a short break may be a good idea. I’m sure Moulmein will continue posting. I may still comment here and there. Enjoy.

The Television…television….11th of February…

One of the main reasons for me to agree with starting this blog is my desire to lengthen my stride and also lengthen my knowledge. I am more than grateful for the posts and comments from all the people here and in some areas, my thoughts have changed. One thing I’ve been really impressed with is all your desires to make this world a better place. Too many Church members seem to be just strolling along and taking care of their own business, without a care for what is happening outside the ‘gospel bubble’.

However, this is not that reason for my post. Something that has emerged as a consensus, which seems rare, amongst us is our detest for the mass media. My recent brush with television’s greatest shame of current affair journalism, Today Tonight, has renewed my negative attitude towards anything tabloid. But recently I heard a great statement from someone in my ward who I quote now. “Television is the snooze button for our lives”.  I want to print that and post it on my wall. So often I spend time watching shows that really, don’t matter. Simpsons aside, the greatest show on Earth, most of the stuff on the tele is absolutely rubbish, but still addicting. I spend lots of time glued to watching the exploits of House, the two brothers from Supernatural or the latest movements at Stargate Atlantis. But what is it worth really? The Savior is not going to ask me at the last day, ‘What happened to Doctor House in Episode 3 of Season 3?”. He is however going to ask, “Why didn’t you do your family history research?”. To which I will reply, “I didn’t have time….” You see my dillema? May I add, that it also happens to be the dillema of alot of my friends in the Church, who all freely admit that if they spent a little less time watching T.V, playing Sport or other time consuming activites, they could be doing something that they don’t that is part of the three fold mission of the church.

So my challenge to you all is this. For one whole week, leave the television off starting on the 11th of February and do something good. Read the scriptures. Do your Family History. Spend time with your family doing something fun. It’s a challenge, but I reckon one worth taking up. However, it’s up to you if you want to join me in this….