Love doesn’t know gender

Love won a battle in Delhi, India, where The Delhi high court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime was a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s constitution, and decriminalized homosexuality.

It’s a small step as the ruling only applies to the country’s capital, Delhi, and could still be challenged in India’s supreme court. The ruling is the first of its kind in the deeply conservative country.

Sex between people of the same gender has been illegal in India since a British colonial era law classified it as “against the order of nature.” According to the law, gay sex is punishable by 10 years in prison. While actual criminal prosecutions are few, the legislation has frequently been used to harass people.

Read more here.

fnord

Hemispheric Asymmetries and Political Positions

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard brain scientist writes of her stroke that she had when she was 37 years of age.  Her stroke resulted from a brain hemorrhage that damaged the left side of her brain.  She’s a neuroanatomist by training.  Prior to describing her stroke and recovery she provides a chapter on brain “hemispheric asymmetries”.

Just as a cautionary note, we all use both sides of our brains.  The right and left hemisheres should be thought of as complimentary halves of a whole and not as seperate brains.  They do have differing specializations, however.

The right side of the brain allows us to:  remember isolated moments with uncanny clarity; recognize faces; the present moment is the only time period that is recognized; there is no defined rules about the correct way of doing things; intuition and empathy are processed on the right side of the brain. From the book: “The present moment is a time when everything and everyone are connected together as one.  As a result, our right mind perceives each of us as equal members of the human family” (p. 30).

Our left hemisphere  is organized around language.  Language is understood and produced in the left hemisphere. The left side of our brain thrives on facts and details.  There is a constant flow of brain chatter that comes from the left mind.  The left side defines our sense of self.  Time is organized and sequential.  Academic skills are processed on the left side our brains.

After reading the book, and I highly recommend it, I had thoughts that perhaps conservatives have some degree of right hemispheric dysfunction.  Not having empathy, not seeing interinconnections amongst us all, etc. would be clues to this possiblity.

What do you bloggers think of this latter “insight”?  Is it delusion or possibility?

iggy donnelly

“On the Internet Nobody Knows You’re a Dog”

This now famous cartoon first appeared in the magazine The New Yorker in 1993.  Wiki provides a history of this Peter Steiner cartoon.

Dishonesty and the use of the internet appear to be significantly linked.  If one does a Google search of the terms “dishonesty” + “internet” a large number of hits result.  The internet has been accused of making academic dishonesty easier.  Another prime complaint is the rampant misrepresentation people do on internet dating sites.  One blog I saw claimed that a study published in Scientific American found that 90% of the posters on a dating site were dishonest about themselves.  I thought, isn’t dating self-marketing usually dishonest, to some small degree even?

Does dishonesty on the internet matter?  I am not trying to defend it, just interested in your opinions.

iggy donnelly

Lobbyists Scolding the WaPo for Its Ethical Practices?

“For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to ‘those powerful few’ — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.”

Newspaper adopts novel approach for bringing in money during financially difficult times.  Read more here.

Thursday, 07/02/09, Public Square

Who planted tomatoes? Are they ripening yet? I’m hoping fresh, ripe, home-grown tomatoes will show up at the Farmer’s Market. I didn’t plant any! A BLT sure sounds good!

What’s happenin’ around your house?

fnord