Family structure has a significant and consistent relationship with adolescent behaviour, with poorer outcomes for those in lone-parent families or families that experienced separation, according to a new report from the ESRI. The ‘Risk and Protective Factors in Adolescent Behaviour’ Report examines the role of family, school and neighbourhood characteristics in (mis)behaviour among young people. It […]
Can you really be transgender at four years old? Matthew Stubbings, and wife Klara Jeynes, both 44, from the English city of Doncaster, believe so. Their “son” Stormy was born as a girl named Emerald. However, from 18 months Emerald identified as a boy like her twin brother Arlo, so they are raising him as a […]
Two of the best known writers of the 1950s in the United States were Whitaker Chambers, the exposer of Communist Party/Soviet penetration of the American administration and author of Witness; and Ayn Rand who wrote the bestselling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Both remain betes noir of the left, but they had little in […]
Irish politicians have long been amongst the worst sufferers in the world of that great political pandemic: do-something-itis. When ever there is a crisis, something must swiftly be done, to demonstrate to the public that the politicians understand the crisis, and have a plan. Last night, just days after the public outrage about investment funds […]
Imagine, for one fleeting moment, that an eminent scientist who had regularly appeared in the media throughout the pandemic took to social media one day to declare that having considered the matter, he had developed suspicions – without any evidence, mind you – that the Covid vaccines might cause autism in children. Do we think […]
Lockdowns are conferring little benefit, but causing colossal damage, a Economics professor has concluded, using a cost benefit analysis to calculate that strict Covid restrictions caused 282 times the loss of years of life, that it saved. Economics Professor Douglas W. Allen, from Simon Fraser University in Canada looked at the effect of loss of employment, loss […]
Contrary to what many scholars expected back in January 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic did not become China’s Chernobyl moment. Instead, more than a year later, the world has fallen into a collective amnesia that is familiar to Chinese citizens. As Kai Strittmatter pointed out in his book We Have Been Harmonized (2020), although the Chinese government’s cover […]
Fine Gael Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said that Ireland needs to “build back better” in regards to the climate crisis, echoing the words of the World Economic Forum, US President Joe Biden, and others. Speaking on Wednesday the 19th to the Dublin Climate Dialogues, Donohoe said: “The pandemic has progressed our understanding of the […]
Begun, the wailing and grinding of teeth has, amongst Ireland’s political class. Who the villain is depends on whether you are in Government, or opposition. If you are in Government, the villain is Aer Lingus, as one Limerick Fine Gael TD took to social media yesterday to assert: Devastating decision by @AerLingus to close cabin […]
It is not really the done thing, in Ireland, to criticise Judges. When, in December of 2019, this writer published a piece arguing that it was time to impeach Judge Martin Nolan, and remove him from the bench, legally minded friends warned that the article had gone too far. Judicial discretion and independence, after all, […]
This book would be a bargain at any price, but it is free to download from the website of Springer, the publisher of many medical journals: Euthanasia: Searching for the Full Story: Experiences and Insights of Belgian Doctors and Nurses. Euthanasia, though legal in Belgium, is opposed by some healthcare professionals. This collection of essays contains insights and […]
4,941. And rising. This number can only increase or, at best, stay the same. It can never go down. Of all the innovations that governments and media around the world have come up with, seemingly independently of each other, during the ongoing Covid period, perhaps the most insidious is the daily running total of deaths. […]