Petition Tag - society

The age of consent offers an abundance of protection to the world’s youth. However, certain aspects of what society means have been overlooked with this law; that is, individuality.

In order for the age of consent to be plausible in that applies to all persons, every individual would have to be of the same emotional, sexual, and intellectual maturity at the same age. Due to the prevalence of individuality in all of these facets, the age of consent can not be an equation of a certain age simply equalling said categories of maturity.

The remedy for this is to analyze each case regarding a violation of the age of consent and consider the individuals involved on a criterion of more than age. An under-aged person is not necessarily mature enough to consent to sexual activity with an adult, however, by the same token they are not necessary too immature to do so either.

People develop at various rates and it is therefore crucial to stop presumptuously entitling people who engage in sexual relationships with under-aged persons as predators or criminals. That is not to say these people do not exist, but rather to show that they do not exist in all cases.

Simply reaching the age of consent does not mean that a person is mature enough to consent to sexual activity, nor does not being the age of consent mean that one is not mature enough to consent to such activity. The purpose of this petition is not to lower the age of consent or abolish it by any means, but rather to change the law so it can permit the judicial system to look at the individuals in such cases as opposed to categorizing such relations as criminal because they fit one category. This category is age; it is the only factor of the individual being considered when such cases arise. All other facets of an individual are not allowed to be viewed in the law; maturity of the individual (be it sexual, emotional, or intellectual) is not of consideration despite its direct relevance.
It is for this reason that this petition is being proposed.

The law changes as society changes. Today, society is encouraging individuality as long as it does not harm another. Under the constitution, limiting one’s freedoms so they do not harm another is ‘reasonably justifiable’. However, it is not justifiable to simply assume that certain actions harm another based on age and age alone. The age of consent must not be a concrete determination of an individual’s maturity.

Therefore, this petition was created to reform the law into allowing people to analyze the individual and actually determine if such sexual engagements are in fact harmful.

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PM $384,000 - $473,000
Deputy PM $287,000 - $369,000
Opposition Leader $259,000 - $333,000
Speaker $245,000 - $315,000
Deputy Opposition Leader $220,500 - $283,500

US President $A388,162
UK PM $A205,662
French President $A293,484
Canadian PM $A287,628
German Leader $A275,225
Japanese PM $A265,587

Departmental Secretaries have received a minimum payrise of 31% and yet the Public Services were only granted a 3% payrise, by this Tribunal, which did not even match the average of 4.1% for the Private Sector. So for these Senior staff they warranted a 10 times larger wage rise than their staff that do all the work in the Departments.

We insist that your first Coalition Government review this and have it amended to a more acceptable wage.

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While growing up, Ias a disabled person, experienced quite a few 'differences' in my education because of my apparatus (a wheelchair & walker). I was treated like an outsider by my classmates and a bother by 2 or 3 of the faculty members . College was surprizingly similar...

I would like to propose a change in the way society looks at people with disabilities. We are not to be stared at by little children, forced to use entrances at the sides or back of buildings, or be labeled as mentally deficient or diseased.

I'd like to see an education system in which children are taught about disabilities and accept people with them.

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Addressing an audience of diplomats in Geneva, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton called for the rights of gay people to be respected.

"Gay people are born into and belong to every society in the world," Mrs Clinton said.

"Being gay is not a Western invention. It is a human reality."Reacting angrily to Mrs Clinton's speech, Ugandan presidential adviser John Nagenda told the BBC: "That fellow [Mr Cameron] said the same thing. Now this woman [Clinton] is interfering.

"If the Americans think they can tell us what to do, they can go to hell."

Uganda is a staunch ally of the US, receiving military assistance to fight a local rebel group - the Lord's Resistance Army - and has sent troops to Somalia to fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.

Mr Nagenda said Uganda would continue to co-operate with the US on security and other issues, but added: "If they are childish enough to take away aid, we'll see what we do [in response]."

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The Sumatran orangutan society, have been very successful in campaigning to get palm oil labeled in all products who use it. They have recently won their clear labels, not forests campaign and it is now compulsory for all food products containing palm oil to be labeled in Europe and the UK. However this does not cover all products...cosmetics are not included in this campaign but i believe they should be.

The palm oil industry is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of deforestation in other countries. Currently 300 football fields are destroyed in south east Asia every hour for palm oil. And it's not just the vegetation that is being affected! The animals that rely on the forest (such as orangutans) are affected, many orangutans have no place to go when the forest is destroyed. 20 years ago their were more than 300,000 Bornean orangutans in the wild, now their are less than 45,000 in the wild. Orangutans only give birth once in 6 - 10 years therefore it is hard for them to breed as much as they are dying out due to deforestation.

Please go to http://www.wspa.org.uk/wspaswork/orangutans/ for more information on orangutans.

But worst of all the industry does not even label palm oil! Most palm oil is labeled as vegetable oil, therefore many people are unaware that it is in their shopping products. This is taking away our freedom to know what exactly goes into our cosmetics, it takes away are choice of whether or not to use palm oil! This is wrong, they should label palm oil and deliberately point out if it is palm oil free!

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We have recently started a campaign to stop the closure of the Philosophy department. So far we have started Facebook, Twitter and a society.

This is still a fairly new campaign but we have shown already to have massive support.

The first two days of a written petition saw well over 1000 signatures, I am hoping to have this much success with the online petition.

http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23savephilosophy

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Noting the following:

- that marriage is currently defined in the Marriage Act (1961) as being ‘... the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life,’ each element of which is essential to the integrity of marriage;

- that marriage is one of the great institutions on which our society is built;

- that marriage provides for a stable family life;

- that marriage is the structure under which children are nurtured and grow the best; and

- that marriage is worthy of protection and support.

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I have learnt about prejudice before and I think that it is completely wrong. I am very hurt when people are prejudiced against me. I am very shocked to discover that only certain types of prejudice such as racism and sexism are illegal.

It is now time that everyone understood and recognised that there is good and bad in everything and that there is a difference between what people CAN do and what they WILL do. I am always very nervous of prejudice and no one deserves to be afraid of being harassed because of who or what they are. I know some people who are prejudiced against pit bull type dogs because they have had bad previous experiences with them. Even this I cannot understand. They should be better educated to know that there is good and bad in everything.

I have heard of others who have bad experiences with Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, and still hold nothing against them. Any dog of any breed can be trained to be nice, whatever their nature or original purpose. I once knew a border collie who wouldn't have known a sheep from a cow because she had never been trained to herd animals. Every day, I fear prejudice and I get even more strongly against it. I cannot understand nor tolerate ANY prejudice whatsoever. Children and young people should be better educated so that they grow up tolerating all religions, races, nationalities and types of people, as well as dog breeds. A better way of dealing with dog attacks on children would be to make socialization classes mandatory for all dog owners. This would also create more jobs as not everyone would be able to afford these classes so the government would have to set up their own classes and pay the people who own the places and those who run the classes. This would not be that hard to enforce because if enough signs and posters were placed regarding the importance of dog socialization the general public would report those who did not take their dogs.

Another idea would be to make it mandatory that children in primary schools are taught how to approach dogs properly. They should always ask the owner before touching a strange dog/s, and even if they let them stroke their dog/s, they should always put their hand out for the dog to sniff first. Never stare into a dog's eyes as this is a sign of aggression. Some dogs do not like to be petted on the head so unless you know the animal well you should never touch its head as it can appear to be frightening to the dog. If a dog chases you or growls at you, you should not run or scream because then he'll be more likely to chase you. The best thing to do is to just ignore him and, if possible, crouch down to show that you are not a threat.

Back onto the topic, how would YOU like it if people were hateful against your religion? Whoever said "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" was talking out of his or her armpit. Words can and do hurt people. Black people do get offended when they are called "n*****" and foreigners do get offended when they are called "p****". Despite rumours and myths, most prisoners are not gypsies or travellers. Some of them are bad, some of them are good. Some of them steal, some don't. Some drop litter, some don't. No one should be judged by anything other than their own personal character.

Prejudice can be stopped, or at least reduced, by education!

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As our supporters will know, we believe a national public library service is vital to the democratic impulse which lead to the great Libraries Act of 1850.

There is some great work going on in the public library service, and we want to celebrate that (see Libraries We Love) , but change is needed.

Libraries could do much more to meet social and individual needs. New thinking and additional money needs to be brought so that libraries can reach out to the greatest and growing need.

Our own experience shows that shared reading can play a practical and important role in delivering outcomes in public health, employment and educational attainment and we want to further develop the reach of the library services to deliver these and other outcomes.

We want to work with library staff and local authorities to bring these great changes about.

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1. Make a new people's constitution where all are accountable to the people;

2. A fully transparent system run by the people for the people with the environment taking the lead.

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Our "free" democracy reached dead end. Proofs of it are all around us; if you examine any given problem closely you will find so much nonsense, that you won't be surprised "solutions" hardly work. Governments have tendency of appointing new agency or special commission for particular cases. It's not only clogging, slowing down proper development.

What is worse that kind of approach does not work on real causes,which are left alone and treated as constants. It won't work. Never. Our only possibility to deal with problems in our society is to treat them as we treat and understand ecosystems. And any kind of political correctness trying to blind us will not help. We have to step out of present illusion(we will anyway - why not now) of economy rules. It is not freedom, it is not even democracy - now marketing rules the world. We are humans, not employees. "Economically viable" and "right" are not synonymous. Sooner we realize it the better.

As problem is so complex I will give here only two examples:

1. Children Rising
At the moment we let "Money & Power" paradigm educate our children(and ourselves for that matter). It results in all sorts of trouble: from bed behaviour to alcohol abuse to overweight. Source of those is the same: we are leaving our kids alone and the don't know what is right or wrong. Their only dream is "to be famous".They are treating projection as reality and are unable to cope with their intellectual and emotional needs. Not even million commissions won't solve it if we do not address the source.

2. Drug Abuse
Similar really to the above. It is disorder of society which manifest in emotional problems of individuals. No agency or prohibition will work.

Accept it. It is pretty obvious truth. It is what we will do with it what matters.

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The recent announcement that the Irish Government has decided, that children over the age of 13, living with one Parent, are no longer entitled to any form of financial support is the final straw in their bag of dirty tricks.

We are now supposed to rear our teenagers, the future of this country on fresh air, or polluted air, as the case may be.

We also need to stop these Gangsters from terrorising our Pensioners, the fore-runners of this country, who have paid their dues and should be cherished, not kicked in the teeth.

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A future cashless society will have several benefits for the community. Firstly, it will increase the detection of crime and be a catalyst for its reduction. As a consequence, it will lower violence in the community.

Secondly, it will reduce the black market that is based on cash and promote the integrity of the income tax base. This will give governments the funds to implement social welfare programs, pay off debt, as well as increase spending on all forms of needed infrastructure.

Thirdly, it will promote greater efficiency in the economy by eliminating the costs of managing cash in terms of counting, securing, and transporting it to banks and other commercial establishments.

The privacy of all Australians is currently protected by national privacy laws. National privacy legislation can be strengthened if needed before the introduction of a cashless economy.

There is absolutely no need for any person or business to apply for any form of credit from any institution, in a proposed Australian cashless society, in order to execute day to day transactions. All Australians can currently apply for and obtain Eftpos Cards, Visa Debit Cards, or Mastercard Debit Cards from any bank or credit union.

The technology for cashless transactions for the visually impaired can and will be developed so that they are not left-out of the means to excecute cashless transactions.

The use of the internet and mobile phone to perform cashless transactions are with us already, or in the case of mobile phones, will be further developed in future using currently available technology called radio frequency identification (RFID).

Australia currently has the technology to become a cashless society. With future research, current cashless methods can be refined while new cashless methods of making purchases can be developed.

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I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis ”— Dr. Paolo Zamboni.

If there is a possiblity that MS can be cured this procedure should be looked into. This experimental surgery Dr. Zamboni performed on his wife offers hope that MS, which afflicts 2.5 million people worldwide, can be cured and even largely prevented.

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The “No Kill” movement ensures all healthy and adoptable animals are given the opportunity to find a home. The Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA (“PHS”), despite having extensive resources of over $5.57 million in revenue in 2008, continues to be a kill shelter.

Many other shelters in the area and all over the country are “No Kill” and have less funding, such as San Gabriel and Glendale Humane Societies, as well as the cities of New York and San Francisco. Adoptable animals are being senselessly killed at PHS because of “space,” despite the extensive financial, volunteer and community resources of Pasadena and its surrounding areas.

Recently PHS won the licensing for the city of Glendale and consequently an even larger number of animals’ lives are at risk. By becoming “No Kill” PHS could potentially save the lives of many adoptable animals.

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Do you want to help STOP further ways for convicted criminals and hackers to intrude into our families & social circles?

The effects that something like Facebook has on all our societies, throughout many countries and their cultures, is of great importance.

When we consider major issues in our legal systems, communities & countries as a whole, we obtain an already gray picture that seems to continuously fade into black. This blackness represents our values, standards and human rights as a whole.

Facebook (as nieve as we all sometimes are) is damaging our lives from something as small as persistent messages and advertisment, right the way through to the biggest issues such as data protection, child abuse, rape & MURDER!

I'm not sure is you have noticed but this "ever growing" culture that insights all kinds of marriage/relationship break-ups and even bullying in our schools, is slowly taking over our general way of life. The schemes that facebook presents are most evil as they come in forms of entertainment and communication, very subtly sucking in our children, wives, husbands, fathers, & mothers to spend increasing amounts of time "stuck" the screen, presenting ever more tempting opportunities for people to indulge themselves in fantasies (good/bad) which have huge side affects. Boundaries according to cultural and sociological criteria shouldn't be broken by way of deliberately enticing people to do so just to line their own pockets.

I feel these affects need to be addressed and considered when deciding the functionality of something thats so easy to cease but can obtain uncontrollable amounts of power......I'm not 100% religiously inclined in any direction but I know...

If there is a Devil, Facebook would definitely be a useful tool for the destruction of society as we know it.

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In support of the public strike in Iranian Kurdistan.

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We are proud of the way the BBC has taken a stand to reflect our society in all its diversity in the past . We feel this is the right time for the BBC to show a large portion of our society that has been ignored for pretty much the entire history of broadcasting.

Women have fed their babies the normal way for ever , yet the british culture has sadly portrayed bottle feeding in every single section of the media and entertainment for so very long that bottle is now veiwed as the norm . It is not. It is in fact recognised as the forth best method of feeding an infant.

We would request that you consider making Heather a breastfeeder ,we dont ask any story changes at all , you dont even need to show her feeding , in fact we would prefer no dramatic storylines as that isn't how breastfeeding happens, its just a natural choice .

You could have Heather say " I'm going to lie down and feed the baby ", just show that she isn't spending hours at the sink washing and making bottles, let her be able to leave the flat in a minutes notice as all she has to do is grab a spare nappy go - in short Please BBC - Make Heather Trott a proud breastfeeding woman

Thank you for your consideration.

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The purpose of this petition is to gather enough signatures of currently enrolled law students at Washington University in St. Louis to formally create an Immigration Law Society at Wash U.

The Law School has never had an Immigration Law Society, yet St. Louis is the home of a surprisingly large population of new immigrants and refugees. Immigration is a topic commonly intertwined with employment and labor law, criminal law, health care, international law and foreign policy, among many other areas. The Immigration Law Society at Wash U would allow students to explore immigration law through direct community outreach, local and national speakers, fair-minded debates, contacts with employers and professional organizations, and advocacy and awareness events. Furthermore, the community outreach and volunteer aspect of the organization would provide students another avenue to obtain real-world legal experiences while in school, giving Wash U law students a competitive edge in the job market, even in areas other than immigration.

If you support the creation of this new organization, please help us by signing this petition. Under the Bylaws of the Student Bar Association, a new organization needs at least 10 registered members and twenty student signatures supporting the group’s formation, among other things. Please note in the space provided whether you would like to sign as a "Member" or "Supporter."

Thank you!

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-Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)- 84% nursing homes did not meet federal standards governing quality of care. 94% did not meet minimum staffing levels.

-currently 1.5 million nursing home residents and in 2050 projected to quadruple to 6.6 million.

-last recorded in July 2008 (still growing) 201,628 prison inmates
-U.S General Accounting Office- proved nursing homes fail to meet federal health standards.

- hundreds of nursing home residents are victimized by: Negligent care, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or exploitation.

-Federal Law for nursing homes: "provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident."

-In Texas, prison spending rose 346% and higher education spending rose 47%

-NAACP Washington Bureau

-studies show people receiving a higher ed. are more likely to achieve than to commit a crime or felony.

-Government spending taxes on convenient stores and cable TV for prisoners.

-Government officials use governments' extra money to remodel their own homes and etc.

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RESCUE CHILDREN PROGRAMME

RESCUE CHILDREN is a leading independent Programme functioning under our foundation. The programme is in its initial stage to create a real and lasting change for children of war in Sri Lanka and around the world. It will an affiliated programme of this foundation. It hopes to work with local and International Children Rights and welfare organizations working around the world to ensure the well-being of children’s, whom life became a nightmare due to the Terrorism and war.
The history of Our Foundation is a story of positive change in people in Sri Lanka and among International Community about the sacrifice of our forces in the war against Tamil Terrorism and bring the everlasting peace and freedom to sri lanka and specially to the thousands of Tamil people live under the troubled North and East under LTTE Terrorists.

Today millions of children in thousands of communities around the globe — working together to create opportunities for the world's children what has been victims of war and Terrorism and to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives.

In January 1989 for the first time I had setup a Individual Research Peace promotion and conflict research programme called " war cry for peace "and continued PEACE PROMOTION exhibitions in the I island and also it was the first ever exhibition was able to organize commemorative Exhibitions of World War 2 in Sri Lanka and it became more popular among public and schools.

It was the time we experienced the terror of JVP and LTTE.In 1992, with the help of group of concerned Friends volunteered to help me to setup the above foundation and gathered to respond to the needs of the foot soldiers, disabled ,and sick soldiers and their families and displaced peoples hard hit by the LTTE Terrorism and In 1992 August I founded this foundation with a few welfishers and Volunteers,
Since 1992 our foundation has committed to do the best for the foot soldiers in the war front, sick,dead and disabled soldiers and their family requirements.

Due to the continuing LTTE Crimes against children has raised the International concern including the UN but theirs nothing much they could do or interest to do but just issue statements, but thanks to the heroic effort of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces on going humanitarian mission to rescue the children and people in the North and Eastern Province of Sri Lanka gave us a opportunity to commence this programme.

Our MISSION
To win the hearts and minds of the People who has been victims of the LTTE Terrorism and Racial conflict against Sinhalese People and thousand of Young children who lived under LTTE iron fist, The time has come and the liberation is near for these innocent children and families and as a preparation to face the after shocks of war and to assist authorities on rehabilitation of the rescued and escaped and escaping children from the LTTE Terrorists, We intend to launch the RESCUE CHILDREN Programme as a civil welfare programme.

Attend the needs of the children escaped form LTTE recruit camps, and escaped from LTTE control areas and look for a possible solution to rehabilitate their lives and return them to the society where they can have a normal life and enjoy the child rights.

Help children to reunite with their families; Rehabilitation programmes in Education, Health, Religion, Social welfare rights; Provide necessary assistance such as, Re settlement in their own homes, Help them to trace their families. (Many Children were kidnapped by the LTTE and hold them in various areas to train them as CHILD SOLDIERS, SUICIDE BOMBERS, INFORMANTS AND USE THEM IN FRONT LINE FIGHTERS,
Provide Mental healths, Religious Counseling,(Many of captured children and children live in LTTE areas lived under so much tension pressure and been abused by the LTTE and needs mental and spiritual counseling to heal their wounded hearts and minds before they ready to re enter in the normal Society.
Through the decades, we have evolved into a leading national relief and development organization. Countless events and achievements have shaped the development of our organization and helped change the lives of the we serve.
We kindly invite you to take a part of these noble programme and please contact us and let us know in which area you can help us.

Sincerely

Senaka Perera
CEO
SLAFRF

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Hello people! A lot of you know what NOW is all about.

For those who don’t, I won’t even try to stuff you with my interpretations. Check it out for yourselves.

Don’t cut corners or take a quick look though. Think of the big picture while researching and don’t be too quick in giving your opinion, or you might miss out on greater, more insightful realizations.

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Salih Abdullah #74-A-2614 has been incarcerated since January 21, 1973.

In determining whether to release Salih on parole, the New York State Board of Parole are required to consider and adhere to the "Legislative Mandate" pursuant to Executive Law ss 259i(2)(c)(a).

This has not been done in Salih's case; he has more than Satisfied all the requirements of the relevant Sub-sections of "Executive Law ss 259i(2)(c)(a) which actually qualified him for parole release years ago.

Whose interests are being served when parole is withheld or denied ? If you would like to see fair parole practices implemented for Salih and other New York State prisoners.

Please Sign this Petition.

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Several middle and high schools in Paulding County are disciplining children for sharing appropriate touches with each other, touches like holding hands and hugging. Touching is natural and necessary for life. Well-adjusted children touch each other.

Touch is an accepted expression of friendship and acceptance in our Western society. The school system does not have the right to enforce a no-touch rule if the same touches it seeks to prohibit are readily accepted in mainstream society.

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This petition has emerged as a consequence of the multiplicity of cases involving psychiatrists, psychotherapists and counsellors who have subjected their patients to sexual, psychological, emotional, exploitative and other forms of abuse.

The position of such practitioners has often meant that these people are often regarded as being beyond reproach by the governing and regulatory bodies under which they work.

People who have the courage to submit complaints are either marginalised, stigmatised or blamed in an attempt to protect both the reputation and livelihood of the practitioner. This has to stop!

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Planned redevelopment of the Benevolent Society site between Ocean street and Wellington street in Bondi.

This site currently contains heritage listed buildings and trees, 2 schools, 2 child care centres and a church.

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Human nutrition should be added to the secondary education curriculum. Children are encouraged to eat healthy and cook healthy, however they are not taught the why behind it, for example what function a nutrient has in the body, or the current guidelines.

Human nutrition is a vast subject concerning health, and food, the basis of existance. Society would benefit from learning about in detail.
They learn history... how will that benefit their future. This kind of education in the future will reduce diseases such as obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and in turn will be a the huge reduction in costs to the NHS and society.

The government needs to act now. Please sign, we need as many signitures as possible.

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Roman Catholic priest Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly home detained again.

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When the new East London Line arrives in 2010, it will mean severe and unacceptable cuts to our existing train services to and from London Bridge. We are asking for your help to fight these cuts by signing our petition.

- Direct trains to and from London Bridge are likely to be cut to four trains per hour.
- This is a reduction from the current service of six trains off peak and more at peak times.
- There will be an extra eight trains per hour on the East London Line stopping at Sydenham and Forest Hill but these will only be four carriages long, with limited seating available.
- Cuts are proposed to the Clapham Junction and Victoria service from our stations, possibly removing this service entirely.
- With these proposed cuts it is likely that London Bridge services will become even more congested than at present.

It is vital that we keep our existing level of services to and from London Bridge

We are not opposed to the new East London line - we warmly welcome it - but this should not be introduced at the cost of existing services.

This petition has been produced by the Forest Hill Society and is supported by the Sydenham Society.

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Should same-sex marriage be legalised in Australia?

One of the government’s roles is to ensure that all Australian citizens have access to fairness, justice and equality. The government is reinforcing prejudice by not allowing equality and the same rights to all citizens. Discrimination comes in many forms and singling out people because of their sexual orientation, and prohibiting them from being legally joined in marriage is just another type.

At the start of 2006, a week before Mardi Gras, Treasurer Peter Costello told the Sydney Institute gathering that marriage rightly applied only to man and woman.

He pointed to changes in 2004 to the Marriage Act allowing homosexuals access to their partner’s superannuation as an example of how the government had recognised gay rights.

However it was a comment about how the government does not outlaw gay sex that angered Ms Stricker and Professor Phelps, a former president of the Australian Medical Association, working GP and a media commentator.

Mr. Costello said: “I think we do recognise the rights of gay and lesbian people in Australia. We do not criminalise conduct or behaviour.”

Professor Phelps, offended by the comment, said it would be like saying to Mr. Costello at the Mardi Gras: “You are really lucky that we don’t lock you up because you are heterosexual.”

Sydney has one of the highest gay, lesbian and bisexual populations in the world, all of whom should have the same rights as the rest of society. Same-sex marriage will provide access to social benefits—from inheritance, to pensions, to longer hospital visitation rights. Why are Australians saying that it’s alright to be homosexual, promoting clubs and bars and even celebrating a mass parade (Mardi Gras) every year, however drawing a line at same-sex marriages?

Some people believe that same-sex marriage will be a threat to the institution of marriage. Homosexuality is recognised in our society and broadly accepted. It is nothing new, so why would allowing same-sex marriages affect Australian society and life?
Marriage simply allows people to be legally bonded in a social and economic contract.

Marriage is not solely about procreation. If that were the case, people who were unable to have children would be refused marriage licenses, as would the couples solely focused on a working life. People marry for many other reasons such as love, companionship and commitment. Legislating for gay marriage merely recognises the status quo. There are already a lot of same-sex couples in Australia involved in a committed relationship, and positively contributing to Australian society.

Those who argue against same-sex marriage and for marriage inequality are denying children the legal protection and economic safety that comes from marriage. All children should be able to enjoy the tangible and intangible benefits that marriage - hetero or homosexual - can bring. A lot of same-sex parents want what heterosexual parents want—the freedom to marry, so as to provide a stable and committed environment for themselves and their family.

Marriage is a legal, economic, social and family contract that has evolved over time. It has an ever-changing face. It can adapt. There is nothing in the ‘contract’ that prohibits same-sex couples from enjoying the same benefits. These were just prejudices in the past. Let’s evolve with the times.

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