Blame the victim and bless the guilty
Thanks to Towleroad for the heads-up:
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has been an apologist for the sexual torture and rape activity perpetrated by members of the Church for quite some time. He seems to have ignorant misconceptions make incredibly ignorant statements about the motivations of those who want heads on spikes for the continued crimes committed by Catholic clergy and abetted by the Catholic hierarchy.
A few comments on the above manifesto:
1. “The common response of all organizations, secular as well as religious, was to access therapy and reinstate the patient.”
Wrong. The common response to rape is to throw the bastard into jail and out of the reach of his victims, and then to let legal authorities decide his fate. The Catholic Church’s method is to shake a menacing finger at the offender and then transfer him to another post, where he can rape again–just like the Boy Scouts of America.
2. “The Times continues to editorialize about the ‘pedophile crisis’, when all along it’s been a homosexual crisis.”
Wrong on both counts. It’s a trust crisis, and a rape crisis. Declaring it to be a “homosexual” crisis is a typical Donohue ploy to blame gays. Extremely few gay men like to rape boys, just as extremely few straight men like to rape girls.
3. “The Vatican did not learn of the case until 1996.”
And did nothing about letting the authorities know about Murphy, just like it did nothing to let the authorities know about Andrew Ronan, or any of the other hundreds of priests who have a taste for torture and rape.
4. “The Times has teamed with Jeffrey Anderson, a radical lawyer who has made millions suing the Church (and greasing professional victims’ groups like SNAP), so they can weaken its moral authority. why? Because of issues like abortion, gay marriage, and women’s ordination.”
Wrong. The Catholic Church has done a dandy job all by its lonesome of weakening its own moral authority by its blatant disregard for humanity and the trust of its members. Abortion, gay marriage, and women’s ordination are quite separate issues, and it is just like Donohue and the League to try to change the subject and worm out of an extremely uncomfortable situation.
A conversation in a woman’s washroom on Interstate 94
The Fiancé© is on the way home from business in Detroit. While at a pitstop today, she was washing her hands when a mother came in with her three small girls.
“Mommy! Mommy! I can hardly wait to get to Minneapolis! I can hardly wait to see the Mall of America! Mommy, is Mall of America the biggest mall in the world?”
“Yes, honey, it is.”
The Fiancé© knows this isn’t true, but she’s figured it’s not worth getting into. The conversation continues.
“You know why we have the biggest mall in the world, Mommy? It’s because God loves America best!”
“That’s right, honey!”
By now it is a wonder the mirror in front of The Fiancé© hasn’t shattered from her glare. She refuses to let the wingnut bullshit fly any more. She turns to the little girl.
“Actually, honey, the biggest malls in the world are in China, the Philippines, Dubai, and Canada. So….I guess god loves them more than he loves us.”
There follows a silence so profound that the ventilation stops running. The mother bristles,
“WELL!!”
and hustled her ankle-biters out the door.
I can’t take The Fiancé© anywhere, which is exactly why I love her.
“In innocence there is no strength against evil, but there is strength in it for good.”
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
This amendment guarantees, among other things, full disclosure of charges to the defendant, a speedy trial by an impartial jury, and assurance that defendant can confront her/his accusers during that trial.
It is difficult enough for an adult to testify in a criminal trial, especially if that adult is the victim of a violent crime. For children, it’s much, much harder. Imagine that you’re an eight-year-old victim of child rape, and your rapist is sitting in the same room with you and staring at you. How convincing do you think you could be to 12 adult strangers and a prosecutor who has tried to impress upon you how important this all is?
As a result, prosecutors of child torture and rape cases (“child abuse cases” does not in the least describe the heinousness of such crimes) have often resorted to videotaping the testimony of children, to be shown to juries. This helps ensure that the child can be forthcoming with information, and was routinely allowed as judges often waived the usual hearsay rules to allow it.
Not any more.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Crawford v. Washington, has ruled that videotaped testimony is in most cases inadmissible, because it denies the defendent his/her 6th Amendment right to confront the accuser.
Locally, a Minneapolis prosecutor has declined to prosecute the case of child torture and rape of Sarah Dingmann’s sons because the case hinged upon videotaped testimony. The defendant has a history of serial pedophilic attacks, and the children have told social service authorities that there was sexual contact with the defendant (who keeps glossy ads of pre-pubescent boys in their underwear in his room).
Cases in Utah and Indiana (and another in Minnesota) all had their verdicts set aside because of the Crawford decision.
Dingmann has started a Facebook page detailing the case, hoping to bring public opinion to bear.
In the meantime, you can help by sending a politely-worded, concise message to our dear governor Tim Pawlenty, state senator Leo Foley, and Hennepin County prosecutor Pat Diamond’s boss Mike Freeman. Here is his email address and phone number (612-348-5550).
…and speaking of definitions…
National Public Radio, in a pitiful attempt to avoid offending anyone (and thereby offending everyone) is now banning use of the phrases “pro-life” and “pro-choice” in their broadcasts.
Now it is to be “those in favor of abortion rights” and “those opposed to abortion rights”.
There is a much simpler way to describe the two groups:
- pro-choice
- anti-choice
That neatly sums up the situation. Those who are pro-choice do not necessarily support abortion itself, but they support an individual’s right to choose to have one, or not.
Those who are anti-choice do not necessarily support the cessation of abortions…wait a minute.
Yeah, they do.
Pot. Kettle. Black.
I got all atwitter (not that Twitter) when Google announced it was going to remove its censorship filters from Google China. I thought, “Wow! Here’s a high-profile corporation with some moral backbone!“
Wrong.
Google only did what they did because the company’s management was pissed off that someone or someones within the auspices of the Chinese government was cracking into Google’s systems to steal stuff. (Most of the illegal entries appeared to be through use of email attachments sent to Google staff that were dumb enough to open files from unknown sources.)
Google still quite happily censors content for various client countries, including
- France, Germany, and Poland (‘net content containing perceived “hate talk”)
- Australia (can’t have no talk about euthanasia or safer methods of drug use)
- Thailand (can’t be making fun of the king there, ya know)
- Turkey (apparently someone there likes to portray the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as gay–fer shame!)
- India (all sorts of things, including gasp! porn)
C’mon, Mr. Brin. No more more-righteous-than-thou chest-pounding from you, sir. You know full well Google’s real intentions, and real hypocrisy.
Begin at the beginning
It is so important in discourse to ensure that the terms of language used by all are perceived the same way by all. Confusion results when someone uses a word in a manner that is not recognized by others. Definitions of terms and phrases should be universal in meaning and perception if there is to be meaningful dialog.
That being said, a few clarifications are needed.
1. Bullseye pointed out that the term “pedophile” indicates a predilection toward sexual desires for those younger than age of consent, NOT necessarily those who perform such acts. There are many documented cases of people who identify as non-pedophilic who have indulged in sex with partners under the age of consent.
I will endeavor to be more precise when using the term “pedophile”.
2. There is a great YouTube video featuring Christopher Hitchens, in which he corrects Bill Maher use of language. Maher uses the term “child abuse” to describe the sexual acts committed upon children by many members of the Catholic Church clergy. Hitchens corrects him, saying that “abuse” does not adequate describe the act. I found myself in complete agreement.
Therefore, when I see a chance to use the phrase “child abuse” in my writing, I will be using Hitchen’s phrase “child torture and rape”.
“The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him”
An unnamed plaintiff in a Oregon lawsuit filed in 2002 claims that the Reverend Andrew Ronan of Portland tortured and raped him as a teenager.
Per court documents Ronan had been transferred from Armagh, Ireland, to Chicago. He had accused of abusing parish children in Ireland, and the Church shuffled him off to America. International transfers of priests must be approved by the Holy See–i.e., the Pope, and the reason for the transfer was passed up the Catholic hierarchy.
Ronan was again caught committing child torture and rape in Chicago, and was then transferred to Oregon, where he did it yet again.
That’s called serial pedophilia, committed in three locations over a period of years. And the Papacy knew all about it. (Ronan was finally defrocked after the Oregon incident in 1966, and died in 1982.)
The Oregon lawsuit was filed by Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson, who has filed thousands of lawsuits against the Catholic Church for repeatedly aiding and abetting sexual torture and rape by priests. The recent cases in Ireland and Munich (where Ratzinger was archbishop) came to light after Anderson released documents to the New York Times.
The man’s not shy about sharing.
Now he plans to bring his case all the way to Vatican City.
He wants to question Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, under oath in a court of law.
It’ll never happen, of course. The Pope is considered a head of state and is therefore exempt from legal examination and prosecution. But it would be nice for Anderson and other legal firms to take thousands of cases of the sexual torture and rape of children and leave them at the steps of the Apostolic Palace itself. Perhaps the combined cries of outrage from thousands of families, highlighted by an American lawsuit, might finally make a real impression on the Church.
Too bad it won’t shut down the corrupt, pedophile-ridden, pestilential institution altogther.
(Tip o’ th’ hat to Trophy Fiancé© for suggesting this.)
Another example of marketing morons at work
(from the Consumerist)
I’m not sure whether I should feel good about this claim, or not.
At least they got their math right. (56¼% would have more accurate.)
Evolution in a nutshell
From that most sublime of nutshells, George Carlin:
“I realized some time ago that I’m not separate from animals just because I have a primate brain, an upper brain. Because underneath the primate brain there’s the mammalian brain, and beneath the mammalian brain there’s a reptilian brain. And it’s those two lower brains that made the upper brain possible in the first place.
“Here’s the way it works.
“The primate brain says, ‘Give peace a chance‘.
“The mammalian brain says, ‘Give peace a chance, but first let’s kill this motherfucker‘.
“The reptilian brain says, ‘Let’s just kill the motherfucker, go to the peace rally, and get laid’.“
“Better Days”
I don’t generally quote song lyrics in my posts. They just don’t have the same impact as the song itself. However, I discovered this song about the time I met Trophy Fiancé©, and I listened to this song eleventy-one times on the way back from our first meeting.
She made me feel exactly the way this song describes.
~~~
Well, my soul checked out missing as I sat listening
To the hours and minutes tickin’ away.
Yeah just sittin’ around waitin’ for my life to begin
While it was all just slippin’ away.
I’m tired of waitin’ for tomorrow to come,
Or that train to come roarin’ ’round the bend.
I got a new suit of clothes, a pretty red rose,
And a woman I can call my friend.
[chorus] These are better days, baby.
Yeah there’s better days shining through.
These are better days, baby.
Better days with a girl like you.
Well I took a piss at fortune’s sweet kiss.
It’s like eatin’ caviar and dirt.
It’s sad funny ending to find yourself pretending
A rich man in a poor man’s shirt.
Now my ass was draggin’ when from a passin’ gypsy wagon,
Your heart like a diamond shone.
Tonight I’m layin’ in your arms carvin’ lucky charms
Out of these hard luck bones.
[chorus]
Now a life of leisure and a pirate’s treasure
Don’t make much for tragedy.
But it’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin
And can’t stand the company.
Every fool’s got a reason for feelin’ sorry for himself
And turning his heart to stone.
Tonight this fool’s halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell,
And I feel like I’m comin’ home.
[chorus]
“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain”
Kaiser Permanente, one of the medical HBOs that benefited fatly from actions stemming all the way back to the Nixon administration, has been a major player in the rescission game.
Some of the cases are outrageous.
In early 2007 Heather Galeotti, who was covered by her father’s employer’s health insurance when she was hit by a car, lay in a coma in the hospital. Her insurance coverage by Kaiser was confirmed by the hospital, so the bills got paid for.
Six months later, KG tried to rescind the coverage, claiming that Galeotti wasn’t covered at the time of the car accident. Two months later, California insurance regulators forced Kaiser to reinstate the coverage, saying that what had been done was an obvious effort to avoid covering legitimate claims in order to improve the carrier’s bottom line.
The health care reform bill would prevent such occurrences if the policy was privately bought…
…but doesn’t necessarily cover group policies, which is where a large majority of health insurance coverage in America comes from.
Cake. Having it? Eating it, too?
Selzer and Company was commissioned by the Bloomberg news organ to perform a poll among Americans. About one-quarter (26%) of those polled support the johnny-come-lately Tea Party political movement, 53% said they didn’t, and 21% were not sure.
Here are some interesting fact that the poll uncovered about the Teabagging 26%:
- 44% identify themselves as “born-again”, compared with 33% of all respondents.
- More than 90% say the U.S. is moving toward socialism and away from capitalism.
- Almost half say the government should do something about executive bonuses.
- 36% say expanding Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (for the poor) amount to socialism.
- 65% say Social Security is socialist, but 47% want to keep it under government control or aren’t sure about privatization.
- 80%+ say expansion of the government’s role in the economy is a high threat.
- 70% want a federal government that fosters job creation.
Now let me get this straight.
They want less government interference in the economy…
…but they also want the government to create more jobs.
They want Medicare and Medicaid…
…but they don’t want government-controlled socialized medicine.
They don’t like Social Security…
…but they don’t want to get rid of it.
I guess I shouldn't really be very surprised.
See my revisited fable for a more (ahem) artistic version of this story.
(The poll’s raw results and exact phrasings of questions are here.)
The noose slowly tightens
Keep smiling. Your turn is coming.
FALL GUY UPDATE: Now the Catholic Church has a fall guy for the Murphy debacle. From the Huffington Post:
“Despite the extensive and grave allegations against Murphy, Ratzinger’s deputy at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled that the alleged molestation had occurred too long ago and that Murphy – then ailing and elderly – should instead repent and be restricted from celebrating Mass outside of his diocese.”
Now the Church can toss that poor “deputy” to the wolves and allow His Pedophilia-Apologist Holiness to get off.
~~~
It’s come to light that then-Archbishop Ratzinger, now Bishop of Rome (Pope) Benedict XVI, had direct knowledge from multiple sources of a Wisconsin priest repeatedly molesting his charges, and chose to do nothing about it.
Not even the slap on the wrist and location transfer the Church normally gives to its pedophiles.
Father Lawrence Murphy, a priest at the St. John’s School For The Deaf in St. Francis, Wisconsin, spent years committing sexual torture and rape upon children. Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (the office charged with handling accusations of the sexual torture and rape of children by priests), was notified several times by clergy (including the Archbishop for the Milwaukee WI area), laity, and students that Murphy was regularly visiting boys (deaf children, FFS!) in their dorm rooms at night.
(Here is a 2006 story from the Milwaukee Sentinel on this horror story.)
Ratzinger recently accepted the resignation of Irish Bishop John Magee for Magee’s failure to report to the police repeated pedophilia on the part of Irish priests. (Let’s ignore the fact that Ratzinger knew about similar cases in Munich when he was Archbishop of that diocese.)
Here is a directory of U.S. diocese, including names, addresses, and phone numbers of the U.S. Catholic clergy. Please, please drop them emails, letters, and phone calls, and send a polite, firm message about how you feel about what is going on.
The saddest part, it’s all a con
I’ve never been very enthused about social networks. I’ve done a little online dating stuff in the past, and I have a Facebook account, but I just do not get very excited about the entire concept.
That being said, a Facebook page came my way the other day that I think might be worth sharing. Here’s the first couple of paragraphs:
WHAT ARE INDIGO AND CRYSTAL CHILDREN AND ADULTS?
How do you know if you, or someone you know, is an Indigo or Crystal Child or Adult?
We will describe the main features and characteristics of these people. But we want to stress that the Indigo/Crystal phenomenon is the next step in our evolution as a human species. We are all, in some way, becoming more like the Indigo and Crystal people. They are here to show us the way, and so the information can be applied more generally to all of us as we make the transition to the next stage of our growth and evolution.
I suspect most of you can see where this is going.
Here’s a bit more of this pseudoscientific crackpot-edness:
The Crystal Children began to appear on the planet from about 2000, although some date them slightly earlier. These are extremely powerful children, whose main purpose is to take us to the next level in our evolution, and reveal to us our inner power and divinity.
And
The Indigo and Crystal children that come to the planet are known as “starchildren”. Often this is because their souls are more at home in the stars, and they have not incarnated on Earth before. They come at this time as a “special assignment” team to assist Earth and her inhabitants with their transition and rebirth as a higher dimensional “New Earth”.
Enough. I am sure you get the drift of this. If you want to read the rest of this nauseating slop, be my guest.
Parents (mostly) love and adore their children, and want them to be “special”. (At what age do children lose the specialness? If they don’t lose it, then all adults are also “special”, and the whole damned thing loses any meaning.)
The article mentions that the perceived “outbreak” of autism in the last 30 years is coincident with the “outbreak” of indigo, crystal, and rainbow children. These folk see no coincidence.
I see a bunch of gullibility and self-delusion, mixed with a stiff shot of Barnum Effect. I also see parents who retreat to this delusion to avoid getting legitimate medical and psychiatric help for their damaged children.
~~~
And you want to know the saddest thing about this entire sordid pile of steaming crap? If you go to the home page for the link that’s at the bottom of the Facebook page, you get a virus checker warning that the site links to a known script exploitation site. (That’s computer-ese for “stay the fuck away from that page”.)
