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Saturday April 23, 2005

Happy St. George's Day!

Anglosphere

Happy St. George's Day! If you're reading this from my RSS feed and it is still April 23, make sure to check out the web site for a special holiday stylesheet has been activated!

Although a Roman and definitely no Anglo-Saxon, St. George became the patron of England for standing up for Christians who were at the time facing severe prosecution. I cannot help but noting that current day George W. must be jealous of the days when fighting terrorism was still appreciated. And although the dragon slaying abilities of St. George might be somewhat fictional, it sure beats the silly Scots who to this day are staring at Loch Ness for such a creature!

So three cheers for England.. I'll have a few pints on your health at the local pub.

EU referendum - from bias to worse

European Union

Note to self: I need a European Union category because other than going the opposite direction of the Anglosphere, a relation I cannot find.

That said, everyone already knows by now that Dutch politicians are desperate enough to spread fear into the hearts of nay-sayers. They are actually claiming war will break out on the continent in case we dare to vote no on the constitutional treaty. But what really scares me is that even seemingly neutral parties (in this case the Institute for Public and Politics) appear to be biased or worse - ignorant. Such as the ReferendumWijzer, a Dutch poll to inform you how compatible your views are with the treaty.

The first Agree/Disagree statement is "A million EU citizens have the right to petition". It fails to mention that this truly means at least a million and, literately, not less. It also omits that these citizens have to come from a "significant" (two? twenty-five? seventeen billion?) number of member states and that the Commission doesn't even have to listen to the petition, if it even adheres to an unknown number of procedures and conditions. Just read the actual part of the treaty, article I-47-4:

Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Constitution. European laws shall determine the provisions for the procedures and conditions required for such a citizens' initiative, including the minimum number of Member States from which such citizens must come.

Statement nine: "The European Union must establish basic rights for its citizens". Almost everyone will agree with that statement. However the constitutional treaty in my opinion fails to truly establish such rights, too often using vague wording and barely limiting government power. For an example of that vagueness I refer to article II-98, on consumer protection:

Union policies shall ensure a high level of consumer protection.

Statement fourteen is about animal welfare and the poll results suggest the European Union cares. But how could it when there is article II-63, on the right of integrity:

2. In the fields of medicine and biology, the following must be respected in particular:

(c) the prohibition on making the human body and its parts as such a source of financial gain

Many people earn some extra cash by participating in such tests, so this article would deprive citizens from income. Furthermore, it would force research labs to test on animals. Or even worse: medicines to be dumped on the market without any testing whatsoever.

But that's not all, some rather debateful elements of the treaty are left out of the poll alltogether. Such as article II-62 on the right to life:

1. Everyone has the right to life.

2. No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.

For a continent where unborn babies can be killed for being a nuisance, convicted criminals get an awful lot of protection. Pro-choice advocates often mention the death penalty as pro-life hypocrisy, but if you ask me it is a lot worse to be pro-choice and at the same time to stand up for murderers and serial rapists.

Article II-83 isn't much better:

Equality between women and men must be ensured in all areas, including employment, work and pay. The principle of equality shall not prevent the maintenance or adoption of measures providing for specific advantages in favour of the under-represented sex.

Why do I disagree? Well, positive discrimination is still discrimination. It fills universities in the US with unqualified students because their race is under-represented and as such it will fill jobs in Europe with unqualified people because their gender is under-represented. Hard-working, talented citizens might be denied positions merely because they are part of a demographic majority.

This referendum guide poll is as useless as the treaty itself. And I swear, the only good thing to come from this constitutional treaty are the post-game showers after I join the female hockey team.

Which religion is the right one for me?

Personal

Quiz time: Which religion is the right one for you?

You scored as Satanism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Satanism! Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism.

Fair enough. What might surprise people is that I apparently have twice as much in common with the Islam as with Christianity, but that is probably due to agreeing with a "just" war (although I seem to interpret that differently than suicide bombers) and slamming down anything that had to do with Jesus. The only untrue in the result is that I'm not totally free of moral codes. The sanity of some of the ten commandments is visible in the poll results making Judaism the best scoring actual religion for me:

Satanism 75%, agnosticism 63%, atheism 58%, Judaism 50%, Paganism 42%, Buddhism 38%, Islam 38%, Christianity 21%, Hinduism 21%.

Also worth noting: I would actually call myself a secularist, as I have argued the existance of a God is irrelevant to human beings: a benevolent God would forgive any doubt on our part and an evil God would torture us regardless of faith, so it doesn't matter one bit what we believe and therefore I tend to withdraw from religious debates on deities. But hey, I want to be young, hip and hang with the in-crowd, so I'll take Satanism!

Next day: Monday April 25, 2005 Previous day: Thursday April 21, 2005

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