h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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>>Words fail me.<<

I wish.

Seriously, I think this kind of vitriolic rant belongs in your journal (if it belongs on hootoo at all).

You obviously hate the woman, and she obviously fulfils all your anti-religious fantasies, but big deal. Is there anything here to actually discuss other than your obsesssion?

Hmm, I am slightly concerned that the daughter is scared because of the abduction news story. Is this something a 4-year old would pick up by themselves? It strikes me as the sort of fear you would have to be taught?

Not that I see it as deliberate at all. Just I wonder if parental hysteria is being transmitted to children on this issue on a wide scale.

Maybe there are other threads for that.

I too was silently shouting at the radio about this one.

A few more things:

"Communicating verbally rather than visually has much to recommend it. Words, used properly, can accurately convey concepts and explain complex ideas."

Yes, however, the Bible is something that can only explain complex things very simply: where did we come frm? God created us...well that's OK then.

"They can persuade with logic and argument. "

They can do...but not in religious texts that require irrational thought and and lack of vision of what is real and what is imaginary.

"In the beginning was the Word. The reference tells us Jesus existed before the world and made it: in the beginning God created, and He created with words."

How the hell does the reference tell us about Jesus? it is one statement about what the beginning was...thus showing Atkins argument to be rubbish...where is the logical argument in this? Where is the obvious stated link between the beginning and Jesus? Also, Jesus was in the NT not even mentioned in the OT.


"Supposedly one of the most powerful pro-life propaganda tools is the photograph."

The tick in the box for getting in her anti-abortion stance.

"Since the disappearance of little Madeleine, our four year old has become terrified of being left alone, for instance in bed. "

What loving mother would actually allow a 4 year-old...her daughter...to even find out about the MCcann story? Having had cinemas full of parents complaining about the adverts prior to Shrek 3 with Madeleine face all over them and they had been sheilding thier children from the story, how can a loving parent allow a girl to know about the story and understand the story such that she is terrified to be left alone?

Is this the sort of person who should be giving the rest of the UK advice.

Here is my 'Thought For The Day' for Anne Atikens: a 4 year old girl does not need to know about a story about a 4 year old girl being abducting...a 4 year old girl should be playing with dolls and enjoying her childhood, not being too terrified to be left alone...it is tantamount to mental abuse.

Textbook Hoo but given the prospect of starting my working day that furious, I'd rather just turn it off for 5 minutes.

We have Radio 2 at work (not my choice until next May) and I really enjoy Terry Wogan. He's excellent value, and the Janet & John stories are hilarious.

But while I usually try to tune out Pause For Thought at 9.15 (and some of the more kneejerk callers to Jeremy Vine, after Midday) I did have to chuckle when someone came in to talk about how old people should be less bitter and curmudgeonly.

On Terry Wogan's show.

Though one does wonder why Anne Atikens (I have no idea who she is) has chosen to tell her 4-year-old daughter about the other girl her age who got snatched away while she was asleep in bed.

Regardless of the massive publicity everywhere, apparently also shown in cinemas, a caring parent would simply say she was a child who was missing and that everyone was looking for.

The details - being snatched from her bed - would have to come from the parents. Why?


az

Possibly this query belongs in one of the other threads, but do we know for sure that she was snatched from her bed, as opposed to wandering off by herself (& then presumably being abducted)?

Loathe as I am to defend AA, it is of course quite possible for a 4 year old to hear a news item & relate it to themselves. But then it's the parent's task to adequately reassure their child...

Should parents swtich off the TV or radio news when their children are around? Or discuss the items appropriately with them?

that depends what time it is, what the age of the children is and - of course, how much the parents think they can cope with.

My two are now 10 and 9, at the time of 9/11 they were an awful lot younger and were absolutely petrified everytime a plane flew overhead. And here they fly very low and are huge - because they are AWACS - and of course at that time their flights increased in frequency.

There was no avoiding them seeing those images, no matter what channel we put on the TV it seemed to show the planes going into the buildings. We "sold" it to them at the time as a tragic occurrence, not saying accident and not saying deliberate. But even so when we next flew it was a bit of an ordeal for them.

now they are older, and know that bad things (unspecified) sometimes happen to children, they are aware that Madeline was taken from her room, because we don't see any reason to tell them otherwise. However, for #2 I have explained that there is a possibility (only a possibility) that someone who can't have children got jelous and took her to be their child. Other possibilits will be discussed if/when she asks about them. #1 thinks she was murdered and is very upset whenever she sees photos of Madeline - but she also asked if it happens very often (child being taken from their bed) and is happy when we tell her that it is rare.

Parents should be able to judge for themselves.

I'm in two minds, for instance, about the screening of the Madeline pictures and appeal before the early screenings of Shrek in the UK. If the "ad" had used different terminology (not "snatched" but that she was missing and that her parents are looking for her) it could have been a good springboard for parents who wanted to, to discuss this with their children. And for those who didn't they could have almost brushed it off.

It's a difficult question to answer.

<>

No we don't, Teasswill, which is why I found it curious that AA's daughter was afraid of going to bed in case this happened to her. So I assumed that particular piece of misinformation probably came from the parents.


az

Actually she has become "terrified of being left alone, for instance in bed". She's not particularly terrified of going to bed, and Anne Atkins doesn't seem to imply it.

Well okay then, she is suddenly terrified of being left alone in her bed ... whatever.

az

Doesn't the Humanist movement campaign against religous propaganda being broadcast?

I wake up to and fall asleep to Radio 4. My personal bette noir is Mark ing Tulley on a Sunday. I get his aged hippy quasi religous drivel both ends of the day. I wish the BBC would take him outside and do the decent thing.

Kids aren't always so blissfully ignorant of the world around them as some tend to assume, my parent was hardly my only source of information at that age.