Politics Suppose the Republicans win, or lose 2 Nov 2008 I haven’t seen a lot of commentary about what it will mean if the Republicans go down or if they win the White House and Congress. From half a world away, some reflections beneath the fold. Read More
Censorship The lies of the internet censors: Your. Filter. Won’t. Work. 16 Dec 2008 The title is the title of a nice essay at Crikey. I especially like this: Bernadette McMenamin of ChildWise, you’ve crossed the line, defaming everyone who’s protested the government’s plans. “Most of these people are not fully aware of the facts and secondly, those who are aware are, in effect,… Read More
History Turtles all the way down 28 Mar 201122 Jun 2018 There is a story, often told about the philosopher William James: One day when the philosopher William James, who had a liking for scientific popularization, had just finished explaining in a small American town how the earth revolved around the sun, he saw, according to the anecdote, an elderly lady… Read More
You mean the Mormon link? (NB: Anytime you see the word “Deseret” in connection with anything, think Mormon. Doesn’t mean it’s factually wrong; just means it’s coming from a Mormon source, to serve a Mormon agenda. Anyone who requires additional source material is encouraged to double-check everything.) The numbers look reasonable to me, as a godless American lefty, but that’s purely anecdotal.
As it stands, that is a genetic fallacy. I find Mormon sources often very good (for example, about evolution) except where it contradicts their basic doctrines. I can’t see how this would.
Ack, I keep forgetting that it’s wide-awake time where you are, instead of insomniac time where I am. It may be a genetic fallacy (and goodness knows how much I’ve been wrestling with fallacies and biases in an attempt to become a better skeptic). But there’s no primary sources on the numbers, and I’m still reeling from all the atheistic confirmation bias after reading all the glowing obits of that amazing writer, sloppy thinker, and confirmed misogynist, C. Hitchens. The article seems to be mostly about sex-trafficking. And it’s hard for me to take White Slavery seriously, considering the kind of baseless moral panic that gripped the US in the early 20th. c. What’s next? “Reliable” statistics on Baby Farms?
I know people in the sex industry, and I think that sex trafficking is real. It’s not about “white” slavery, though, but slavery. And it happens in Australia too. This is not really about good white girls being kidnapped and traced by Liam Neeson, but about poor and vulnerable women being exploited and coerced by criminals. This happens in the US, and elsewhere, and often these are ethnically subjected women. There is also forced labor of men, but mostly this is a problem with women and children. As to the lack of figures; it’s a newspaper report. They mention they get the figures from the UC Berkeley, the department of Justice, and an academic study published as a book. I would imagine it would not be hard to track those down.
I should get into the habit of putting a note under these images. Generally though, I don’t put up images that aren’t mine without a link to the source. It’s bad netiquette.
The Deseret/Mormon connection is well known, but I do not see how this article promotes the LDS agenda.
It’s not only Mormon newspapers that publish sex-slave hysteria. In the week before the last Super Bowl (in Dallas), the Dallas Morning News ran articles speculating about all the sex-slaves who were sure to be imported from other cities for the event. One article per day, for an entire week. It sells newspapers.