Magic Statistics

My friend and fellow Yukon blogger Rebecca Stark today gave out Thinking Blogger awards to five bloggers.  I was dumbfounded to see my blog first on the list.  There must be some mistake!

A Thinking Blogger award goes to Scott of Magic Statistics.  I know Scott in real life, so I know he’s not just a blogging thinker, but a real life thinker, too. Scott is the go-to guy for the dissection of all things statistical.  Issues within the Anglican church also provide fodder for Scott’s thinking blogging.

Some days my thinking abilities are better than others.  Some may wonder when I last had a good day in that department.  Well, I’m on my fifth day of this miserable cold, so it feels like it’s been a while.

For those who missed it, my first venture into blogging was as guest blogger at Rebecca’s place.  The post was entitled, “How the Lord made me into a Christian”.  It’s an incredible story if I do say so myself.  If it hadn’t happened to me, I would never have believed it.

My humble thanks to Rebecca, who is herself a fine example of a thinking blogger.  She just moved her blog from blogger.com to its own domain.  If you’re looking for in-depth defence of Reformed theology, hers is the place to be.  Check it out!

Part of this Thinking Blogger thing is that each recipient gets to name five more award-winning bloggers.  Here goes:

• The mighty, mighty Binks at Webelf Report
• John Sexton and Scott Ragan at Verum Serum (I'll bend the rules and count them as one)
• Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian (That choice is kind of a no-brainer)
• Rev Joe Walker at felix hominum
• Some guy named Mark Steyn

Winners, be sure to download your award icon.

Research by the Labour government shows that its own pro-nursery (British for “daycare”) policy is harming a generation of children.

Labour's drive to put toddlers in childcare so mothers can go out to work is damaging a generation, the Government's own research showed yesterday.

Young children who spend long hours in nurseries are more disruptive and anxious than infants mainly looked after at home by their mothers. The earlier they go to nursery, the worse their behaviour becomes.

Toddlers left in daycare for at least 30 hours a week are "significantly" more likely to bully other children, tease them, call them names and demand their own way.

But they also became worried and upset. They were more prone to pouting, frowning and stamping their feet if asked to try a new activity and to worry about not getting enough food, drink or toys.

The study also found that the longer children attended nursery, the greater the tendency to behave selfishly and disruptively.  The age at which the child first entered daycare was not significantly correlated with behaviour.

On the positive side, some children who spent time in nursery seemed to gain in social and co-operative skills.

The children rated as more cooperative, sociable and confident were not usually the same children who were rated as more anti-social or worried/upset,” the report noted. “Thus, some children showed increased positive behaviours with time spent in group care while others showed increased negative behaviours.

The annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers is now considering a motion deploring the drive to full employment and the attendant push to consign young children to nursery.

This study, conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, comes to light barely a week after a far-reaching American study of children and daycare reported similar findings.

Previous related posts:

• Even high-quality daycare is associated with poor behaviour
• Daycare damages children’s development
• Universal daycare program hurts children and families
• Babies better off if mothers stay home

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has sent a letter to a US senator calling on the government to supply humanitarian aid and make it easier for displaced and endangered Iraqis to resettle in other countries.

Although it is good that she is speaking out, I think her letter glosses over some essential aspects of the refugee issue.  Her proposed action plan consists of the resolution passed by the Executive Council, portions of which are copied below:

The interim governing body of the Episcopal Church, the Executive Council, therefore has recommended in a recently passed resolution that the US Government take the following actions to address the severe humanitarian crisis of refugees and others being displaced by the ongoing violence resulting from the war in Iraq:

Move urgently to begin discussions with all countries in the region immediately affected by the war in Iraq in order to bring about a cessation of hostilities and remove the circumstances that threaten the stability of the region and produce widespread displacement of persons,

On one level, this is tautological: If “hostilities” cease and “circumstances” creating instability are removed, then everyone will ever thereafter live together in peace and harmony.  But what does that entail, exactly?  I’d suspect she has in mind the Allied occupation.  On that view, if foreign troops leave, the cause of hostilities will be gone.  However, as discussed in many posts at this blog, many thousands of Iraqis have been driven into exile because they are Christians harassed and threatened by Muslims.  The departure of foreign forces will not remove that source of conflict.  Nowhere in her letter does the PeeBee reveal any awareness of that fact.

Seek the creation of a process which enables Palestinian and other refugees under severe threat to depart Iraq in safety,

That’s the first I’ve heard of threatened Palestinian refugees in Iraq.  I’ve heard a great deal about persecuted Assyrian and Kurdish Christians, but nothing about Palestinians.

Grant temporary protected status (TPS) to those Iraqi nationals in the United States lacking permanent status and who may be facing deportation proceedings,

In collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees take immediate steps to facilitate the resettlement of those refugees in the region, particularly those with US family ties or US associations, including especially vulnerable persons such as women and children.

At several points, the letter refers to Iraqis with American connections as being in especially vulnerable situations.  I suppose that’s true but, from all reports that I’ve seen, Christians anywhere in Iraq are in peril from Islamist fanatics.  No mention of their vulnerability, hoewever.

In your present and future deliberations I hope you will remember the views of people of faith on the important issue of Iraqi refugee resettlement.

“People of faith”?  Is that how Bp Schori refers to Episcopalians?

As I say, her letter is admirable and well-intentioned, I’m sure.  But she ignores a crucial aspect of the refugee problem in Iraq: Muslim extremists are persecuting Christians because of their faith in Christ.  Until that is recognised and addressed, the situation is not going to improve.

h/t: titusonenine

Previous related posts:

• Jihadists campaign to wipe out Assyrian Christianity; West does nothing
• Iraqi Muslims tax Christian “subjects”
• Last Christmas in Iraq?
• Iraqi Muslims persecute Assyrian Christians
• The “Talibanisation” of Iraq

According to analysis of a longitudinal study of Australian women, the single strongest predictor of whether women with unexpected pregnancies will decide to abort is partner violence.

The study of 9,683 young Australian women aged 22 to 27 found that those reporting either teenage abortions or abortions later in their 20s, were more than three times as likely to have been abused by a partner as those who didn't terminate.

The study also found that young Australian women who terminated pregnancies were more likely to be disadvantaged - from low-income families, less-educated and not privately insured.

The analysis was conducted by Angela Taft and Lyndsey Watson of the Mother and Child Health Research Centre, Dept of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, and has been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

'Women experiencing violence and abuse can be subject to coercive sex and unprotected intercourse, leading to a higher rate of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies,' say the authors.

Dr Taft says that young women may have little control over sex or contraception in abusive relationships. 'You could say that young women don't feel they have the right to say no.'

'What can society do about this problem?' Dr Taft asks. 'The take home message is that if we want to reduce the rate of abortion and unwanted pregnancy in Australia, especially among teenagers, we need to reduce violence against women. Also healthcare providers and pregnancy counselling services should ask women seeking terminations about their experiences of partner abuse and if necessary, refer them to supportive agencies.'

Similar results have been found in studies in the US and Canada.

h/t: Life Site

Previous related posts:

• Abortion: Risk factor for “major depressive illness”
• Impossible for Canada to be more extreme on abortion
• Abortion: Risk factor for breast cancer