Half way through the year!

Brazilian prisoners can now have their sentences shortened by reading books and writing essays on them. I hope they follow this up with research on the recidivism rates of the participants. Other studies seem to suggest that education can be more useful than enforcement. Well here's a real test of the idea.

A German court has ruled religious circumcision of infants a crime. This was ruled in a regional court in Cologne. I'm not sure how the legal system in Germany works, but it appears that this isn't an absolute ban across all of Germany. Still, it brings up an interesting debate of religious freedoms. Any infant that has been circumcised clearly didn't have the ability to consent to their body being modified. Should this be allowed?

In Tahrir Square, Cairo, a British journalist was sexually assaulted. This unfortunately doesn't seem to be a one-off incident. There was a journalist for France 3 that was 'brutally molested' a year ago. There was also the case of Lara Logan, who was also sexually assaulted. Now that Egypt has supposed democracy let's see if they can protect their women such degrading behaviour. No-one deserves to be violated against their will in such a horrible manner. No-one.

A U.N. report has come out which names Cannabis as the most used recreational drug. Clearly are laws aren't working and we should clamp down even harder! Well, no, it's about time we got rid of the stigma associated with discussing drug law reform. Why don't we take all the money we spend locking up drug addicts and spend it on rehabilitation?