TellTheTruth - Where to send your letters of complaint - newspapers

Hi Everyone,

Here is the letter I sent to The Age, The Herald Sun, and the Diamond Valley and Heidelberg Leader Newspapers. I am happy for anyone to use it as a template. The more letters they get, the better! Here are the addresses for the newspapers, The Herald Sun prefers that you submit via their website:

letters@theage.com.au
heidelberg@leadernewspapers.com.au
diamondvalley@leadernewspapers.com.au
For The Herald Sun go to http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/ click on "opinion" then "write a letter to the editor".

UPDATE 8/9/08: You can also send letters of complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau. This proved effective last time, as their new leaflet is much less graphic, though no more truthful I'm afraid.

Dear Editor,

Regarding an extremely graphic anti-abortion leaflet drop in my local area.

As a woman who has chosen to give birth and to stop a pregnancy (regretting neither), I was appalled at the graphic anti-abortion drivel slipped into my letterbox this weekend. According to reports on the mentioned website this mail-out was opened by children and the elderly - people who are normally protected from exposure to such explicit material. Imagine receiving this coloured slip of lies if you had just miscarried or otherwise lost a baby! A woman who has recently stopped a pregnancy would be severely distressed. The religious bloke responsible for this barbaric scare campaign has more money than sense, no compassion, and a very low regard for the truth. An abject apology is in order, also a further mail out correcting the calculated lies and unsubstantiated generalisations. In the best of all possible worlds he will be arrested for delivery of unsolicited obscene material.

Yours sincerely,

Name
Address & phone number (You have to include your contact details or you won't be taken seriously.)

PS The leaflet was dropped by a Ron Vanwegen, and his website is www.tellthetruth.org.au The comments on his blog should inform you as to how well it was received by the internet literate.

Interesting links to come out of TellTheTruth.org.au

I have the poster "never had an abortion" to thank for these links to myth-busting sites regarding the "facts" that prolifers spout on abortion.

Most people I know, know that these claims are either exaggerated or false, but here are the links for people who need more convincing. The link discrediting the kinds of pictures used in the pamphlet is among the links on the left hand side.

WARNING MOST OF THE PICTURES ARE WORSE THAN THOSE ON THE PAMPHLET so don't go there if you found the pamphlet distressing. However, there's lots of other interesting stuff to read!

http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/
http://www.abortion.org.au/

Let's tell the truth about abortion dot org

Just received in my letterbox the most graphic piece of anti-abortion literature I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in Australia. For a minute I thought we'd emigrated to somewhere on the US bible belt. The pamphlet contained graphic pictures of dead embryos and foetuses (actually, I'm pretty sure one of them was nearly full term so lets call it a BABY shall we?) and the usual falsehoods about abortion spouted by fundy fanatics.

I'll be busy this weekend composing a detailed letter to my MP. Detailing the potential distress caused to my family and the hypothetical distress caused to others. Detailing how misleading the pamphlet is, and giving hypothetical scenarios - what if a recipient had just miscarried or lost a child? How many old ladies had heart attacks? I'll be sending copies of my letters to anyone I can think of, asking if there is any legal action we can take against him. There must be some limit as to what kind of material you can put through a persons letter box.

I'll post things as they are finished.

The sad thing was that I was one of the first people to visit the perpetrators blog (I didn't actually post until a couple of hours later). It was a pretty sad blog that didn't live up to its rather grand name. There were only three comments, one left by the owner himself! So much for "Australian Prolife Conference". One wonders if this guy was acting alone.

My German Mum didn't abort me so legalised abortion is akin to the Nazi regime. My arse.

Here is a letter to The Age from a pro-life whiner followed by my fairly scathing response.

My mother chose me over the alternative

I AM not supposed to have an opinion on abortion that counts, because I'm male and a Christian, but when my mum tells me that I was unexpected and unplanned, it all starts to have a familiar sound to it.

I'm the youngest of seven (two didn't survive beyond childhood) and the only one born here after my parents migrated from Germany.

My mum has found Australia difficult from day one and I'm thankful she did not consider me inconvenient when she found out I was going to arrive after less than a year here. I can only shudder at members of the Victorian Government proposing a law that harks back to 1930s German government policies that effectively removed equal rights to other human beings.

If laws such as this existed here 40 years ago, it would have put developing humans such as myself at risk simply at the whim of another human being.

I would not have been worthy of equal protection simply because of my total dependence on my mother for a few months. My mum knows this kind of philosophy only too well. If I had been aborted, I would not exist.

It's not the mark of a mature human society to remove innate rights, regardless of any other argument that can be built to support such a motion. Germany was a technologically progressive nation back then, but still managed to miss some fundamentals. Equal rights means just that, and if some class is somehow excluded, the whole concept is seriously undermined. In fact, if abortion is decriminalised — effectively the denial of the right to live — equal rights is a myth and a delusion. And I seriously doubt that the experience will be any different or better for women.
Mark Rabich, Mount Evelyn
_______________________________________________________

*sigh*

Mark, if you are raising emotive specters such as the Nazis in your arguments you are not thinking clearly about the issue. A woman seeking to stop her pregnancy has nothing in common with a Nazi doctor euthanasing living, breathing adults and children. Developing humans do not participate in equal rights. Period. It is the law that you don’t have the same rights as the rest of society until you take a breath, and with good reason. There is no way to give a foetus rights without trampling all over the rights of the woman. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in favour of trampling over women’s rights on a whim.

Mark, if your mother had stopped her pregnancy, you would not have existed. Thus you would not be around to be horrified by the alternative of non-existence and would not have been able to bore us with your drivel. Comparing the availability of safe and legal abortion to the Nazi régime is patently emotive. To say that women have abortions on a whim is to severely understate the stress and trauma that such a decision often entails. So you mother kept you. Bully for you. Next time I’m visiting my alcoholic and sometime abusive mother who wishes she hadn’t had me at all, it will be such a comfort to know that an unplanned pregnancy can work out well.

Mark, You clearly have not the slightest conception of what it is to bring an embryo to term, then watch it every minute for the next fifteen years. Perhaps if abortions were more readily available in Australia we wouldn’t have seen as many babies abandoned as we have in past months.

Mark, I’m glad for you that your mother kept you, you must feel very special. Sadly, yours is not the only “my Mum chose life” story. Spoken to any women who had their babies taken from them in the 30s, 40s an 50s for the crime of being unmarried? Asked them how that felt? Spoken to a child victim of that policy? Asked them about their identity crisis not knowing their biological parent? Or you could check out our foster homes and ask children born into families that can’t look after them how special they feel? How about kids that are born into abusive families because the poor woman was afraid to refuse sex and couldn’t access the cash for a termination? I bet those children feel both lucky and special.

It is my opinion that developing humans do not have a right to life, but they have a right to be loved and cared for by their biological parents. There are unwanted children who have that right violated every day. You have no idea how truly lucky you are. There is a big difference between unwanted and unplanned, Mark. Be grateful you were the latter by all means, but try having a little Christian compassion for women who are trying to prevent the former.

People who blindly trust doctors with child birth annoy me.

My contribution to the noisy and emotional discussion about caesarean sections. Click on the title to go to the discussion on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

I'm amazed at the number of ill informed folk posting here. I'm also amazed at the number of people taking the issue personally. Doesn't anyone teach reason and argument at schools any more?

Most of my friends did more research into the purchase of their latest car or TV than they did into the birth of their child. It beggars belief.

For heavens sake people, get educated. Take a look at the recent medicalisation of childbirth, read the HISTORY, take into account that we have been bipedal and giving birth without assistance for 300,000 odd years, acknowledge that in some cases natural processes go wrong. Take a look at the birth stats for countries such as NZ, Canada, US, UK, Netherlands etc, compare policies, methods and outcomes. Look at the stats for our country, listen to the experiences of those around you. For heaven's sake don't get your information from Maternity Ward or *insert any dramatised birth story television show*. Find out what the World Health Organization says. Learn exactly what your rights are in this country, especially when it comes to "informed consent" as that tends to go out the window in a labour ward.

After all that, if your OB recommends surgery for your healthy pregnancy you are likely to ask for a second, if not third opinion. That is if you've opted for an OB at all (checking out the stats in Australia should tell you why most people who check the stats don't have a private OB).

If, once you've done your homework, you still want to opt for unnecessary surgery, you will have my astonished, but heartfelt respect for your well informed decision.

Weird Questions I get asked: Ass Pinching

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Rob Thomas
Date: 20 Jan 2008, 10:05 PM


Hi there Emma,
I know this is crazy, but I have a quick question for you. I really need a female opinion.
A female friend of mine was in a club and was harrassed by a guy who pinched her ass several times during the evening. At one point she attempted to slap him but he grabbed her wrists tightly. She tried to pull away but as she struggled the jerk just smiled down arrogantly at her and said "Upper body strength, babe, gotta love it." Unbelievably, the guy made HER apologize for the attempted slap, and when he finally let go she felt humiliated and left.
She feels bad because she did not know how to handle the situation.
As a woman, what is the best way to take care of a guy like this, especially if there was no one around to help you, and you wanted to escape his grasp, and possibly teach him a lesson?
Greatly appreciated,
-Rob
_______________________________________________________

My Reply:

Hey Dude, This is a surprise! Do I look like an ordinary female to you? And how do I know you weren't the primitive arsehole in question trying to prep himself for possible reactions?

Just in case your intentions were good...

What the hell was she doing in a club on her own????? It's a natural fact that blokes are stronger than women, and that many many blokes will take advantage of said fact. Tell her go grow up and get realistic or do a martial art.

*sigh* but since you asked, this is what I'd do.

Guys like that rely heavily on most girls' ingrained desire not to make a fuss. The key to an end to the ass pinching is not personal retaliation (slap = assault that is worse than ass pinching) but public humiliation (then the ass pinching is still the assault). The trick is to turn around, and yell at him to stop, making sure everyone knows he's an ass grabber and making sure everyone knows how many times he's grabbed your particular ass, "That's the third time you've pinched my ass you jerk, cut it out!" is simple and often effective. If he enjoys the loud attention, however, another alternative is to go the club manager and ask that he be removed, why should he spoil your good time? If the manager refused, my next step would be the local paper with the line, "Sexual Harassment ok in my bar, says Club Manager". But I'm like that.

As for wrist gripping, again make it public, scream loudly that you don't know him and to let you go - STRUGGLE LIKE MAD. Again, he's perpetuating the assault, and now he's doing it in public.

Assholes like this get away with their behavior because no one pulls them up on it. The more of them that get publicly humiliated, and the more good blokes step in on behalf of girls who are sexually harassed (disapproval of other blokes is a more powerful deterrent than the disapproval of other women for some reason), the less sad ass pinching dick heads there will be.

Also, for your girl? A martial art that specialized in grip breaking and using your opponents strength against them - Aikido and Judo are two that I know.

Also, my personal take on what to do if a situation like this escalates into a full blown attack on a girl? She should retaliate by trying to kill him.

Yep. Aim for the Kill.

Unless he's excessively weedy and she might win, she should try to hurt him as much as she possibly can. Why? Men are so much more stronger than women it's almost obscene. By attempting to mortally wound him she at least stands a chance of hurting him a bit, if she tries to "just hurt" him she'll get worse than nowhere. So, aim for the kill - remember, he's already trying to hurt her!

Hope this helps.

Cloverfield

I hardly know what to say, other than: if you can, don’t read any reviews, just see it. Preferably see it on a huge screen in gold class (as I did) but be ready to block your ears for the loud bits. The camera work is genius in that it leaves one with a horrible feeling of participation and helplessness. It’s Blair Witch meets Aliens meets bog ordinary love interest. I can’t tell you anymore. Just see it. Oh, but if you don’t like the kinds of movies where lots of people die - don’t see it.

Dumplings

Magnificent Chinese art house. But not for the squeamish. Was the hidden agenda the moral status of the fetus? Or, is cannibalism ok? Or an exploration of the lengths to which people will go to retain their youth? I found a personal journey whereby I discovered I could not find a logical problem with eating an aborted human foetus, yet was physically repulsed by the idea of someone spitting water from their mouth into mine. Go figure. A poignant back story about backyard abortions too (pun intended).

Male Circumcision - my response to CD

Today in The Age, Catherine Deveny had this to say about male circumcision.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/its-child-abuse-and-its-time-it-was-cut-out/2007/10/23/1192941062383.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Apart from being her usual insulting (but funny) self, she was scarily irresponsible.

When deciding whether or not to circumcise my son ten years ago I had 5 months to read the extensive scientific literature on the subject, I had a biological science degree to back up my understanding and I still did not get through it all. My interest reignited when I first heard of the studies claiming that circumcision helped prevent transmision of HIV in Uganda. (What if the decision not to circumcise was wrong?)

If Catherine Deveny had truly read all of the studies, which I truly doubt she has, she would know that the jury is still out on the subject of circumcision and HIV transmission and that better studies need to be done that control for the involvement of muslim males. To say that there are sutdies that “disprove” the efficacy of circumcision is downright irresponsible given the epidemics in third world regions.

That said, I agree completely with her criticism of the usual arguments people trot out for circumcising their boys. In this country there is every good reason to let your son make up his own mind when he has one to make up.

To those of you comparing the foreskin to the tonsils or appendix as examples of useless organs, your knowledge base is way out of date. The tonsils are now known to be important for the immune system, and the appendix a valuable store of gut flora. The foreskin also has a purpose - to protect the sensitive glans and harbour protective bacteria.

Things go wrong occasionaly with all the human organs, this is not a good reason to rip them out willy nilly at birth. Time to catch up with the medical profession folks.

Sorry about the "cut and paste" links people. At some stage I'll figure out what's what in my template and add enclosure links...

Why Save Your Blogg if it gets published the next day anyway?

I saved that last entry so that I wouldn't have to embarrass myself with all the spelling mistakes. Today it lives. Never mind, best start out with atrocious spelling. I can only improve. Today I've updated my profile and will publish a photo for my viewer (being me). GOD this is narcissistic is it not?

Why Blogg?

This all came about because I was indulging in that height of vanities, googling my own name... E-Blog has cleverly advertised under my name and I was sucked in and created one. Now what though? I do have things to talk about it's true... but do I have the time? What could I possibly say that would not have been said before? If I did say something new, who's to say that it would not be nicked by an unscrupulous author who gets paid to broadcast their thoughts willy nilly? I'm already broadcasting my thoughts willy nilly on Twitter (http://twitter.com/enfox) why double up?

Ooops, have to go pick up the darling boy. See? No time.