NewsWatch

March for ‘Science’

ICR.org, 5/4/17, “March for ‘Science’” [Excerpts]: On Saturday, April 22, 2017, a group of people claiming to represent science marched in Washington D.C. and 600 other cities around the world.

So what did the March for Science hope to accomplish? Apparently they intended to eliminate opposition to Darwinian evolution and man-made climate change. They consider these two contentions to be scientific fact. But [they] state that they’re interested in evidence-based policy and regulations, science education based on the weight of evidence, and free exchange of scientific research (i.e., no gag rules on scientists). Other ideas they express are political and appear to attempt to establish scientists as a special group not subject to the vagaries of economic downturns as common citizens are, yet thoroughly subject to the whims of the ruling elite.

Organizers [of the march] claim they are against political interference in science, and yet they lobby the political establishment to prevent discourse or the teaching of any ideas contrary to the current dogmas of evolution and man-made climate change—a clear contradiction of their stated goals.

(https://goo.gl/pjCPUh)

How Euthanasia Turns Culture Upside-down

OneNewsNow.com, 4/24/17, “How euthanasia turns culture upside-down” [Excerpts]: An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association takes a look at euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands from the standpoint of organ donations. But although the practice has only been legal in Canada for a year, organ donations from patients who have been euthanized are already occurring.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition [says] his concern is the culture shift. “What happens is people start saying to you, ‘Well, why aren’t you giving your organs for organ donation?’ But then the other big change that occurs after that is that you then soon have organ donation by euthanasia,” he warns.

“We have a situation where people are viewing everything in an upside-down fashion, so now euthanasia’s become a good thing rather than a sad situation,” says Schadenberg. “And we’re creating more and more pressure, and they’re saying, ‘This is all about choice and autonomy,’ but in fact this is about pressuring people who are going through a difficult time in their life to have their life ended by lethal injection.” The idea is to convince society that euthanasia is a blessing.

(https://goo.gl/28DSVm)

Therapeutic Universities and Soft Despotism

FrontPageMag.com, 5/1/17, “Therapeutic Universities and Soft Despotism” [Excerpts]: The phenomenon of...college students demanding “safe spaces” from “microagressions” rightly provokes derision and scorn from normal people. Those who live among the slings and arrows of the real world, where actions have consequences and one’s delicate self-esteem is a matter of indifference, can only shake their heads at such childish tantrums.

Start with the “self-esteem” fad...In 1991 a widely publicized “study” proclaimed, in the words of a New York Times headline, “Gender Bias in Schools Is Still Short-Changing Girls.” Though the study’s methodology and conclusions were quickly discredited, it went on to provide intellectual support for the $600 million Gender Equity in Education Act of 1993 [and] Title IX of the  1972 Educational Amendment Act, which threatened the cut-off of federal money to colleges in order to coerce them into policing “discrimination” on the “basis of sex.”

This is just one example of how left-wing identity politics, in this case feminism, generated phony “research” that gave a patina of science to contested and dubious ideology, which then became enshrined in federal law....Indeed, over the years universities have developed numerous services for students that monitor their psychological health and offer therapeutic solace....Identity politics programs also find such offices to be useful allies for reinforcing their ideological agendas. Identity politics is predicated on victimhood, and victimhood generates demands for compensatory programs and services.

The therapeutic services offered by the university validate this victim narrative, as do sexual harassment policies, “hate speech” codes, and other policies all backed up by badly written federal and state laws. They all assume the therapeutic imperative to protect students from damage to their self-esteem.

(https://goo.gl/HXoGmc)