Saturday, October 23, 2010


Fury as 1,000 Gypsies living on Europe's largest illegal camp leapfrog thousands of people on British welfare housing waiting list

Travellers at Europe’s largest illegal camp are to be treated as a priority for social housing because they will be considered homeless when they are evicted. Around 1,000 travellers who live at the Crays Hill camp in Essex are due to be removed from the site after losing a long-running legal battle.

The bill for taxpayers could be as much as £10million as police and council officials face having to launch a major two-week operation following concerns of violent confrontations.

Now it has emerged the travellers could have the right to leapfrog over 4,500 people on the housing waiting list in Basildon Council’s area – and have been ‘encouraged’ to apply by officials.

Critics fear they might cause a logjam for urgently needed accommodation, even though they have stated they want to be moved to new caravan pitches rather than flats and houses.

The situation caused outrage among the residents of Wickford, who have endured threats, petty crimes and anti-social behaviour, as well as seeing property prices plummet, since the travellers arrived almost ten years ago.

Len Gridley, 51, who lives next-door to the camp, said: ‘They should wait their time like everyone else. The young people of Basildon have lived here all their lives and they can’t get homes.’

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said: ‘The travellers could go back to the sites they came from and they have houses all over the place. It’s not fair.’

Details emerged following a civil hearing on Wednesday between Basildon Council and four travellers – John Sheridan, 33, John and Mary Flynn, 77 and 79, and Barbara O’Brien – which is due to conclude next month.

The travellers argue they should not move into conventional homes and are demanding land to continue their traditional way of life.

Galin Ward, representing the council, told Southend County Court the travellers had been treated as priority cases. She said: ‘They are treated as being on the waiting list for housing under Basildon’s allocation scheme. ‘Mr Sheridan’s case began as long ago as 2006. They have come, if you like, to the top of the queue.’

Council leader Tony Ball later disputed the fact the travellers were on the waiting list, saying they were being treated as homeless. He added: ‘Making a homeless application is a different process but we have to offer a permanent home if a suitable one can be found, rather than temporary accommodation.’

A council spokesman explained the travellers were not top of the housing list but they would be-come a ‘priority’ for help if classed as homeless. He went on to admit they would not automatically go on to the homeless list but had been ‘encouraged’ to apply.

Travellers at the camp yesterday said more than 200 families could qualify for housing if declared homeless.

Michelle Sheridan, 33, daughter of John and Mary Flynn, said: ‘I don’t blame the settled community for being upset. There are more than 4,000 people on the waiting list and Basildon Council wants to move us off land which we bought and paid for and put us on the list for houses.’

The Tory-run council has 10,500 properties and access to 5,000 housing association homes. According to a survey by homeless charity Shelter, it would take three-and-a-half years to find everyone on Basildon’s waiting list a home if no one else joined.

SOURCE






Sex hysteria and inflating words



Three of the performers from Glee did a photo spread for GQ magazine that has the sex hysterics panting, breathing deeply, and ready to explode in a fit of verbal diarrhea.

The Gleeks who modeled in the spread were Corey Monteith, Dianna Agron and Lea Michele. Now, for the record let us notice that these three actors are all adults. To be precise Cory is going to be 29 on his next birthday while Dianna and Lea are both going on 25. Second, we should note that GQ photo shoot is not sexually explicit, does not include nudity and is merely suggestive at worst, if you consider such things bad—which I do not.

None of this has any impact on the hysterics at the Parents Television Council. Contrary to its name this is not a collection of parents per se. It is a Right-wing political organization founded by L. Brent Bozell, a far right activists and relative of William F. Buckley. Its whole purpose is to promote censorship, either voluntary or coercive if need be.

The slightly racy, but not sexual photos, however got PTC president Timothy Winters in a dither. He released a statement of monumental stupidity. He claimed that the photo shoot "borders on pedophilia." What the fuck?

How does a photo shoot of young adults in their mid to late 20s border on pedophilia?

Apparently the idiotic Winters assumes that since they play teenagers in a television show then this "borders on pedophilia." Apparently if one of them was in a movie where their character was killed then this would qualify as necrophilia as well.

Note that the way these loons use the word "pedophilia" that they are stripping it of any definition. We should be clear as to what this is.

Pedophilia is a persistent sexual attraction to prepubescent children. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV also says the adult partner must be at least 16 years of age and at least 5 years older than the child. Non-sexual photos of adults, even of adults who play teenagers on television, is not even on the borderline of pedophilia.

In fact, by definition, even if the photo shoot were of actual teenagers this would not be pedophilia. Notice what pedophilia is NOT. It is not the violation of age of consent laws. Age of consent is a legal definition for a status crime, it is not something that falls under the clinical definition of pedophilia.

Nor is pedophilia a sexual relationship with significant age differences, unless one of the individuals is a prepubescent child. A man of 50 who dates an 18 year old is not a pedophile since the 18 year old is not a prepubescent child.

Pedophilia is a sexual attraction to sexually immature children.

The PTC is trying to take advantage of a political trend that has been going on far too long. They know, like many lobby groups do, that a very large percentage of people are disturbed by sexual activity between adults and prepubescent children. The reality is that most people don't like pedophiles.

Since that is the case, political lobbying groups attempt to redefine pedophilia to include things which clearly are not included. The reason for doing so is to encourage the same sort of fear response from people that they display toward pedophiles. In other words, since people fear actual pedophiles, let's take non-pedophiles, redefine them as such, in order to get the same fear response people exhibit toward the real thing. And the reason to expand the fear is quite simply in order to achieve political goals that actually have nothing to do with pedophilia.

The PTC knows that this is not borderline pedophilia. But they don't care. What they want is to promote censorship. They are inherently anti-sexual and want to wipe out all such images.

The Glee stars didn't even do this modeling on television. And, I should note, that the outfits worn in the QC spread could be worn on almost any television show without fear of falling afoul of federal censorship laws.

Pedophilia is intentionally being inflated so as to mean what it does not mean, in order to accomplish other agendas by those doing the inflating.

What may be the PTC agenda here? Consider that Glee is one of the more pro-gay television shows on the air as one possibility. I also happen to think it one of the more moral shows, if we use morality in the real sense of the word. Morality, to me, is more how you treat others and less about whether you have orgasms and with whom. Right-wing moralists are obsessed with hating orgasms and sex, but have no problem with mistreating others or being intentionally cruel to others.

They would love to remove this show from television entirely, not because the show itself is portraying anything unacceptable in the realm of sexuality, but merely because it cuts against the anti-gay, moralistic campaigns of the Religious Right.

So they pretend that a magazine photo shoot is really about television. They also pretend that this is about pedophilia even though all the actors are sexually mature adults. They call it borderline pedophilia and a "near pornographic display" in order to justify their conclusion that it is "only masquerading as family show" (sic). The goal is to attack Glee, and since they couldn't do it on the the actual content of the show they looked for other reasons to attack.

They actually hate Glee quite a bit and warn that is totally unsuitable for anyone under the age of 16. They give it a "red light" warning because it is supposedly includes "gratuitous sex, explicit dialogue, violent content, or obscene language." That, quite simply, is bullshit, something that they would consider obscene language. But it is still bullshit.

All in all the show is rather sexually tame but PTC does mention one thing, which I suspect bother's them a lot: "One boy has recently come out of the closet..." That would be the character of Kurt Hummel, one of the characters who actually adds a great deal of pathos and damn good storey-telling to the series.

One of the worst trends in politics is how both Left and Right attempt to drag "the children" into every situation in order to panic parents into pushing for some other agenda, which in truth, is totally unrelated to children.

SOURCE




Australia: Bible ban 'political correctness gone mad'

AN unholy row has erupted over the hand-out of Bibles at citizenship ceremonies. Hobart and Clarence councils this year stopped handing out Bibles after they were told by immigration officials they were no longer needed, The Mercury reports.

Liberal senator Guy Barnett said the move was "political correctness gone mad".

Clarence mayor Jock Campbell said his council had been told by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that if citizenship candidates wanted to swear an oath on a holy book, they needed to bring their own.

Hobart Lord Mayor Rob Valentine said his council began advising candidates this year they needed to bring their own. "We were told by immigration, quite some time ago, not to give Bibles out anymore," Ald Valentine said.

Ald Campbell said until this year Bibles supplied by the Bible Society of Australia had been handed out to participants who opted for the Christian oath. "I'd see it as an unnecessary change," he said.

Ald Campbell said the council had contacted the Bible Society for advice on what to do with 72 spare Bibles.

A Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesman said last night it was not appropriate for organisations hosting citizenship ceremonies to give holy books as gifts and this had been the position of the department since 2003.

SOURCE






Australia: The "all males are potential rapists" scare now hits swimming pool changerooms

Feminist man-hatred has largely chased men out of primary school teaching -- as men rightly fear being exposed to suspicion and false accusations. Now that fear has spread

SCHOOLBOYS have been banned from a pool changeroom because adult male swimmers are afraid they'll be falsely labelled paedophiles.

Angry parents described the decision as political correctness gone mad after boys were forced to sit in wet swimmers on the bus back to school from the Hornsby Aquatic Centre in north Sydney. The rule, imposed this week, initially forced male students from six schools to huddle behind a stack of plastic chairs to get changed. They were later provided with access to an unused clubhouse.

When The Daily Telegraph visited the pool yesterday, two female Berowra Public School teachers guarded the door as a group of boys changed clothes.

A Hornsby Shire Council spokesman said the ban protected members of the public from facing false accusations and to protect the boys from any undesirables who could be in the change rooms.

"Hornsby pool received several complaints last week from members of the public with regards to schoolboys in the male change rooms," the council spokesman said. "The boys were unsupervised and the members of the public felt very uncomfortable changing in front of the boys. "One stated that he had an untrue allegation made against him several years ago in a similar environment."

Schools teaching students to swim have been ordered to have at least two male chaperones to look after children while they change.

Some of the school students are ignoring the new rules and using the male changeroom without an adult.

"The measures were put in place to protect the male students, members of the public and staff," the council spokesman said.

Alistair Hookway said he had no problem with his son Oliver, 7, using the pool facilities, calling the new rule an over-reaction. "I can't see any problem with a young boy using the change room like any adult can under proper supervision," Mr Hookway said.

Michael Rees, who has swum at the pool since 2006, said it was a smart move. "I have no problem with the decision. The kids make a lot of noise," Mr Rees said.

Local Government Association of NSW president Cr Genia McCaffrey described the case as "unique". "It is up to the individual council to resolve this issue based on their own unique community needs and circumstances," Cr McCaffrey said.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here or Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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