Humble Apologies Ludwig... missed the radar :) I'll try now.

[How can anyone be particularly worried about any aspect of morality without being offended by a poor and declining quality of law-enforcement and respect for the law in general?]

I totally agree !

How do you think I felt when I read of groups of middle eastern boys with BASEBALL bats being "spoken to and allowed to move on" While Anglo youths were arrested and imprisoned on the same day, during the Cronulla period ?

I was churning inside !

My experience with the special events police here in Melb showed me that they do indeed prioritize things.

The lack of respect for the Law, and the lack of modesty in clothing, are related. To me, it signifies a general decline in our culture and social well being. Changed attitudes to discipline are resulting in more contempt for authority. "6 of the best" only hurt 'inside' when you got it for the wrong reasons and I testify, the mere thought of Mr Lee whacking my hand with his huge strap deterred me from LOTS of naughty things.

The issue of clothing and morality is a minefield. Some say "If you've got it, flaunt it" and some gullable people have bought this.

Its socially irresponsible in my view.

Wearing appropriate attire is one thing, that doesn't mean girls have their breasts hanging out, the curves and bumps deliberately highlighted, there are modest ways of wearing climate appropriate clothes.
A lot of it is context sensitive too. If I rolled up on Sunday morning showing as much skin as many of the girls do, I'm sure I would create HAVOC :) Or came to Church in a pair of Speedo's...

We tend to adjust our attitudes according to the context.

I just feel that given the powerful nature of our sexual drives, it doesn't take much for the old mind to begin a journey which has a sorry outcome.

I went to watch my lady friend this morning. She took and passed an exam in modern ballroom dancing at a high level, as also did a number of our friends. Her teacher also has a large number of child students, most of them girls.

The young girls were dressed virtually as miniatures of adult ladies going to a dance. Some had ball gowns, some short flirty skirts. They had make-up, dangly earings and sequinned shoes. They were dancers and wanted to look the part. And their mothers and fathers looked proud of them.

To those with strange minds, this may sound like paedophiles' heaven. To a person with a normal way of thinking, it's just kids learning what we used to call social graces. And learning to be suitably dressed for a special occasion.

I'll draw an analogy. I think the ladies may agree [I know that some of my very respectable female friends would] that the fit young guys who play footie look great in their short shorts and sleeveless shirts. Don't the young boys who take up the game dress the same? And does this make watching kids' footie paedophiles' heaven?

I went, on a scholarship, to a very religious school. I remember being taught that "To the pure at heart, all things are pure". Well, I would be inclined to think that the opposite may also be true. Those who see dirt everywhere they look have dirty minds. Think not? Well, I [and most others] can see children dressing the part without having evil thoughts. But paedophiles think differently and also too do at least some puritans and prudes.

Rex well said.

R0bert

Rex.. strangely enough I find nothing wrong with the ballet thing.

Its cultural, and long standing, and I've never had any sense of young children dressed for ballet etc being in anyway used in a bad way.
I guess I feel that because since I can remember, my 2 female cousins were doing just that.

I am gravely suspicous though of anything which 'suddenly' gets pushed by large commerical mobs, which is outside our existing and accepted modesty boundaries.

I don't see many commercial oppotunities in the childrens ballet, but I sure do in chidrens clothing in todays social context.
We didn't have MTV etc in my childhood days.
Perhaps the best idea is to closely look at what real/actual values are being promoted in these boundary pushing excursions.
I think if we look closely over time, a pattern will emerge which is quite convincing that its just repackaged 'sex sells' and 'young sex sells even better' ? Once a society reaches a level of equilibrium in its sexualization of life, the only way you can go to keep it interesting is look for some as yet unexplored boundary to push ..don't u think ?

-Younger.
-More Explicit.
-Combination of the above but adding 'same sex'.

Are the only 3 boundaries left.

Boaz, you forgot bestiality.

Oh - ballroom dancing is a far cry from ballet, but it's pleasing that you acknowledge that neither is inherently sexual, even when kids do it.

Reminds me a bit about the old joke about Methodists - who disapproved of sex because it might lead to dancing...

While of course you're entitled to your opinions, I think that your expression of them in this forum sometimes verges on the obsessive.

I mean, your phobia about Bob Brown's sexuality... really! ;)

Thanks for the reply David

“The lack of respect for the Law, and the lack of modesty in clothing, are related”.

Yes, but they are very different in this respect: - “The issue of clothing and morality is a minefield”, whereas the issue of law-enforcement and respect for the law should be a black and white matter.

"If you've got it, flaunt it"

Well yes, why not? Why shouldn’t we be proud of our bodies and we willing to show it…. within well-defined limits?

I reckon we could easily draft laws that would take care of this issue, so everyone would know the limits. As it is now, we just don’t know. And where there are laws pertaining to this issue, we cannot have faith that they really apply, or apply equally to all.

So again, if we are really concerned about immorality when it comes to clothing (and all sorts of other things), we need to be concerned about our terrible and worsening rule-of-law regime (good laws, good policing and good respect for the law).