Quick Quiz

Q: What do you call adults who find entertainment in sexualising under age children?

A: Radio clowns Kylie Sanderlands and Jackie O, of course.

-- Nora

Sins Of Omission

Tim Blair calls them 'men of no description' when certain Australian newspapers edit out any mention of ethnic appearance in police crime reports.

Agence France Presse and News Limited go one further in a report on a rape and subsequent circumstances in the United States:

ONE of four boys charged with raping an eight-year-old girl in the US state of Arizona last week will be prosecuted as an adult. The details of the case have shocked local officials and provoked outrage across the United States after the parents of the young victim disowned her on grounds she had "shamed" her family.

It's a matter of disgraceful shame too - on the part of AFP and News - that they did not extend the 'details of the case' to mentioning pertinent facts.

For throughout the remainder of the story, there is no mention of the fact that both the victim and her attackers were Liberian refugees, something which was easy to find in under 60 seconds by Googling the case and reading US reports.

It's quite plain that the agency and/or the news outlet edited out this information so that readers' prejudices against Americans could freely have their head, clearing the way for a picture to form of dastardly rednecks disowning a child raped by equally ignorant and typically thuggish white American boys.

I made three or four attempts early in the piece yesterday to set the record straight in comments but none were published by News' information gatekeepers, though, late in the day, an American reader was able to get it past them.

However, by then the damage was done, and not just in furthering the vile anti-American prejudices of AFP and many journalists generally.

Lost is a vitally important opportunity to consider the implications of Western nations accepting refugees who are psychologically damaged from years of civil war in their homelands.

This story is a stark and shocking example of how Americans are paying for their kindness. In Australia and Britain too, there are like events relating to refugees from similarly war-torn African countries.

It really is time that Western governments considered the welfare of their existing nationals and undertook to assist in resolving conflicts and fostering extended periods of social stability in troubled overseas countries rather than just importing their damaged goods and imagining this largesse will instantly cure the horrors that ail them.

-- Nick

Footnote: Andrew Bolt asks some of the same questions in his blog today.

But Only Wryly So

Amusing that the governments that would ban alcohol advertising in sport have no problems letting pubs stay open all night long.

Hilarious that even The Greens see the hypocrisy:

"The hotels industry donated $1.7 million to the government and over $1 million to the coalition between 2003-2007. Of this $2.7 million, $1.8 million came directly from the hotels lobby group, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA). Clubs donated $382,850 to the government and $461,864 to the coalition between 2003-2007. Of this $844,714, $512,692 came from the clubs lobby group, Clubs NSW. Hotels and the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) are now the fourth biggest donor to the major parties, after developers, unions and the finance industry."

-- Nick

UPDATE: Drug Arm Centre of Addiction director Caroline Salom gets where alcohol problems are coming from and it's not VB sponsoring the footy:

(She) said drugs were an issue but alcohol abuse was much more widespread and drinkers were getting younger. "Where it used to be about 14 or 15, we're now looking at 12 or 13 where young people first start to drink," she said.

Ms Salom said the main reason was the emergence of a definitive adolescence.

"From a sociological point of view, we've created this adolescence period which didn't exist 100 years ago," she said.

"These young people have become more pressured over the last couple of decades to model adult behaviour, and that includes drinking and drugs.

"But they don't have the expectations of adulthood like responsible behaviour, so for them, they don't just have to drink, they have to get drunk." (Emphasis added)

Cop That, Leo

Utopian-minded dreamers love to coo about 'the wisdom of children', a phrase which was the title and also the theme of a short story by another Utopian-minded dreamer.

In the story, two girls playing in new frocks accidentally splash mud on the dress of one. Their mothers argue, causing others to argue and fight. But:

In the meantime, Akulka had washed off her frock, and she and Malasha returned to the pool. The two girls make a small boat out of bark, and they make a stream from the puddle. They go chasing after the boat together, as happy as ever. Akulka's grandmother urges everyone to follow the example of the children, and take their spirit of forgiveness into their own hearts.

Yeah, right.

This is the wisdom of children:

A SWAZI man was stoned to death by a mob of schoolchildren after he stabbed a 13-year-old girl to death with a spear and wounded 12 others at their school... teachers had tried unsuccessfully to stop the students from killing the man.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

-- Nick