Simi Valley Sophist

The Simi Valley Sophist ruminates on all manner of topics from the micro to the macro. SVS travels whatever path strikes his fancy. Encyclopedia Britannica: Sophist "Any of certain Greek lecturers, writers, and teachers in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, most of whom travelled about the Greek-speaking world giving instruction in a wide range of subjects in return ..."

Name:
Location: California, United States

Retired: 30years law enforcement-last 20 years Criminal Intelligence Detective.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Exhibitionists, Moral Morass-Exhibit Three

Annie’s Mailbox, written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, once again struck a righteous blow for “decency” and just plain old prudery.

It seems that a lady is upset that a family member has posted a blog wherein there is a photo of the female member of the blogging couple “…wearing scanty clothing.” I am shocked. The indignant woman writes:

Yesterday, my husband's nephew sent him an invitation to view the online blog that he and his wife write. On the site, the wife had posted a photo of herself wearing scanty clothing. I am furious, but I don't think it's jealousy I'm experiencing — I think I feel disrespected.

Really now! It wasn’t the writer to Annie’s Mailbox with her picture on the blog. She expands upon the subject:

This same woman likes to wear revealing outfits around the family. I wouldn't think of posting this type of photo of myself on the Internet, and I certainly wouldn't invite male members of the family to view it.
Now we’re getting somewhere. It appears that Mrs. Indignant already has an ax to grind, even before the blog photo was posted.

I’m wondering if it is a more serious offense for male members of the family to view the blog photo than it is for the rest of the males in the world. Are you getting a picture of Mrs. Indignant as an insecure person? She continues:

I think she is clearly an exhibitionist, and I have a bad feeling that the pair of them are getting some sort of sick pleasure from the wife exposing herself to the men of the family.

Is it possible that Mrs. Indignant is peeved because Mrs. Exhibitionist is more attractive to the family males than she? It could be, but I’m guessing that’s not the root problem.

Well, don’t feel bad for Mrs. Indignant because Annie’s Mailbox rushes to her defense:

People who post provocative photos of themselves on the Internet are indeed exhibitionists, and you are probably right that this couple enjoys the =attention. They want you to be titillated or outraged.
From the information in the Annie’s Mailbox column, dear old Annie has taken Mrs. Indignant’s assertions at face value as to the provocative nature of the photos. Were the photos more revealing than what can be seen at the beach or the community swimming pool? Not only did Annie jump to conclusions, but she blithely brands the blogging couple as exhibitionists.

The one thing that I learned from this Annie’s Mailbox column is that there are three uptight women talking to each other and proclaiming their communal moral indignation. There is little likelihood that they will ever extract themselves from a moral morass of their own making. It’s really too bad that God made the human body so indecent that it can’t be looked upon without revulsion, don’t you think? I do agree with Mrs. Indignant in one regard; I don’t think that she is jealous. Her pathology is much deeper.

Previous Blogs:
Sex Offenders, Moral Morass-Exhibit Two
Nudity and Sex, Moral Morass-Exhibit One
American Indian Nudity Destroyed
American Indians Did It in the Nude
YMCA Doesn’t Stand for Christian or Male Anymore and You Can’t Go Nude
Spirit of Justice Returned to Her Natural State
Her Embarrassment Killed Her

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Patch Says It All


Monday, March 26, 2007

Black & Right and A Few Words to the Troops

Veteran Bob Parks of Black & Right says it Right.

Right on brother.

Slice of Life

I am no classically trained writer. No fan of the bard Shakespeare and others far more literate than I. Nevertheless, I do scribble a little bit, and I appreciate a well turned piece. Some people have the knack to vividly describe in word their environs with a richness that reaches in and touches something in your soul. For me, Al Martinez has done it again. See his column in today’s LA Times, Podunk? Put a cork in it, pal.

I'm curious. I wonder how long Al took to craft his depiction of a Podunk slice of life no more.

Dishonesty-Weapon of the Cut & Run Crowd

We went to war in Iraq with the strong bi-partisan support of Congress. Now we are in an extended battle and the “Cut & Run Crowd” finds it politically expedient to abandon the effort that they approved. Go here and see and hear what Madeleine Albright (Sec. of State in the Clinton Administration), Pres. Clinton, Howard Dean (D-VT), and Sandy Berger (Nat. Security Advisor Clinton Administration) said in 1998. In 2002, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Joe Biden (D-DE), Harry Reid (D-NY), and Hillory Clinton (D-NY) weighed in on the issue. In 2003, John Edwards (D-NC) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) had their say.

Now, the Democrats have changed their tune. Were they dishonest when they made their statements? Or, are they now dishonest? Doesn’t much matter because they will say whatever is politically expedient at the time, even if it is now deleterious to our military personnel and national security.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Some Have Not Forgotten

The veterans of World War II are passing from us quickly, and the Korean Veterans are not far behind. Soon it will be the Vietnam Vets’ turn.

Let’s be frank about something, the vocal American public treated the Vietnam Veterans shabbily when they returned home. There were no ticker parades. And, where were the national expressions of gratitude for the sacrifices?

The very vocal failed to separate the personal sacrifices for buddies and country from the political and treated our best with contempt. The majority of the anti-Vietnam War protest generated from within the environs of the universities and colleges. It was the passion of immature and malleable students, the guile of elitist intellectuals, the treachery of the left, and the uninvolved oblivion of the rest of us that facilitated or allowed the disgrace to exist.

Motorcyclists, especially the early Harley Davidson riding crowd, are an unconventional lot, and it was they, especially the Vietnam Vets among them, that first began stepping forward to honor their comrades. In 1988, the first Rolling Thunder Rally of 2500 motorcyclists rode into Washington DC and headed for the Wall. By 1991, it was 45,000 people and 20,000 motorcycles. This year’s numbers are expected to reach 500,000. A half million people meeting on Memorial Day Weekend to honor all of our veterans: lost on the battlefield; lost to the ravages of time; or still living.

Motorcyclists will ride from all parts of the country to join with their brethren in Washington D.C. The nineteenth edition of the Run for the Wall motorcycle ride departs from Ontario, CA, on May 16. One group will ride the Northern route and the second rides the Southern route.

When you see the motorcycles flying American flags heading to or from Washington D.C. in May and early June, know that they remember and honor. Let it be a reminder to you to acknowledge the sacrifices of others and offer a word of gratitude. To do any less exacerbates the national disgrace of the seventies.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Do You Remember? I Do & I Will Shed A Tear At The Wall

Attributed to Lt. Col. Hal Moore prior to deploying to Vietnam in 1965,

... when we go into battle, I will be the first to step on the field and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind... dead or alive.

The Ia Drang battle,

On Sunday, November 14, 1965 at 10:48 a.m., Lt. Col. Hal Moore and his young troopers touched down at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang (pronounced: eye Drang) Valley, a place in Vietnam known as "The Valley of Death."

From the web site for the movie We Were Soldiers,

A man of his word, Lt. Col. Moore set foot on the field of battle first only to find himself and approximately 400 of his men surrounded by roughly 2000 North Vietnamese soldiers. The ensuing battle was one of the most savage in U.S. history, and the first major encounter between the soldiers of North Vietnam and America.
When you visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall, panel 3 lists the names of those lost. Seventy-nine in the battle of Ia Drang. Two hundred thirty four by the end of both battles, X-Ray and Albany.

Let Us Finish Our Defense of You

In my blog Why Do They Fight?, I quoted Former Captain Nathaniel Fick, U.S. Marine Corps,

I took 65 men to war and brought 65 men home.
Together we passed the test. Fear did not beat us.
We fought for each other.

In the micro-world, our military, our sheepdogs, fight for each other. But, in the macro-world it is much bigger than that.

Now read the words of a professional soldier, who retired and then reenlisted. He is a LTC with the Multi-National Force in Baghdad. The LTC is considered crazy, which is affectionately crazy, by some of his friends. I, for one, don’t consider him crazy. I consider him a Patriot.

Why We Fight
I have heard often in the news media and in official reports about how the soldiers are fighting to bring freedom to the Iraqi people and how we have an objective to establish a democracy in the Middle East. While I support these objectives they are not why I am fighting in Iraq, they are not the reasons that many of the soldiers I have talked to are fighting in Iraq. I hope Iraq does become a peaceful democracy, however I am fighting here to defend the United States, my people, my culture and my family.

I want every one to clearly understand that on 9/11 we were attacked by a radical movement that wants to destroy our country and our way of life, a movement that wants to dominate first the Middle East and eventually the world. Make no mistake they want to destroy the U.S.

They would like nothing better then to kill thousands of Americans. While destroying America they will also destroy their own people who do not actively support their terrorism. Read the "Looming Tower". We are evil for them because our freedom and influence destroy their ability to dominate and oppress the people of the Middle East. Those of you who believe that disengagement and isolationism will stop the attacks are badly mistaken they are fanatics and will come after us. The Islamic Terrorist cannot letwestern culture compete with their oppressive theocracy, to do so condemns them to failure because people will eventually want the freedom they see in the west which is happening throughout the world. To withdraw allows the terrorists to define the battlefield and carry the attack to the United States.


I am fighting in Iraq so I don’t have to fight in Nashville. After 9/11, it became clear that Al Qaeda intended to carry their war on to US territory. To do this they had connections with many other organizations and anti-US nations. Among those were Iran, No. Korea and Iraq. Al Qaeda and Iraq were not allies but they both wanted to destroy the US. They already had contacts and Saddam had programs and plans for weapons of mass destruction. There is ample evidence that Saddam had some weapons maybe old but never the less illegal chemical weapons. But more so he would have developed more weapons if left alone. The attack on Iraq accomplished many positive things militarily. It took the war on terrorism into the Middle East where we can attract terrorists to Iraq and kill them here. If not here where do you think they will go to kill Americans. They will be in Nashville and a thousand other US cities.

The War in Iraq does give us an opportunity to establish a democracy in the Arab Middle East, opening up the possibility of changing the dynamic of politics in this region. In no other way is anything going to change out here, we have to initiate change. Lastly it takes out the possibility that Saddam would link up with Al Qaeda assist in their terror war and provide territory, weapons or funding. Keep in mind Saddam funded The PLO suicidebombers. He supported terrorism, used chemical weapons, had some chemical weapons and was a sworn enemy of the US.

It is not easy what we are trying to do. But we have taken the initiative away from Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, we have chosen the battlefield we force them to fight in a place we chose and a time we forced on them they snipe at us and we kill dozens of them every time they attack. They come to Iraq to kill Americans they do not go to America. The homeland is peaceful and without attacks. We are in Iraq to insure that it stays that way. America is not the battlefield, which is what Al Qaeda wanted on 9/11. As in World War Two when we were attacked we took the fight forward to enemy territory, we do not wait for the enemy to carry further attacks to the US.


This is why I fight In Iraq. So you can sleep well at night for I am on watch with my thousands of military brothers and sisters. We would not have it any other way, the alternative is unacceptable. Let us finish our defense of you. We don’t want to fight in Nashville.

The LTC’s words are worth repeating, “Let us finish our defense of you.”

Previous Blog:
Why Do They Fight?

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

National Security Letters-How Stupid Can Some Lawmakers Be?

By now you have probably heard all about the FBI and its supposed big transgression relative to the use of national security letters.

In 1986, Congress first authorized FBI agents to obtain electronic records without approval from a judge using national security letters. The letters can be used to cquire e-mails, telephone, travel records and financial information, like credit and bank transactions.

In 2001, the Patriot Act eliminated any requirement that the records belong to someone under suspicion. Now an innocent person's records can be obtained if FBI field agents consider them merely relevant to an ongoing terrorism or spying investigation.
A recent revelation,

…the Justice Department's chief watchdog, Glenn A. Fine, told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority in illegally collecting the information from Americans and foreigners through so-called national security letters.

Now some national legislators are threatening the FBI,

Republicans and Democrats sternly warned the FBI on Tuesday that it could lose its broad power to collect telephone, e-mail and financial records to hunt terrorists after revelations of widespread abuses of the authority detailed in a recent internal investigation.

Of course, the DOJ watchdog asserted,

Fine said he did not believe the problems were intentional, although he acknowledged he could not rule that out.
"We believe the misuses and the problems we found generally were the product of mistakes, carelessness, confusion, sloppiness lack of training, lack of adequate guidance and lack of adequate oversight," Fine said.

So, maybe the FBI is not so much of a bad guy as it is an incompetent bureaucrat when it comes to the administration of the national security letters. The point is that there is no evidence presented to suggest that the FBI is running around indiscriminately violating the privacy of Americans. What they are doing is trying to aggressively get a handle on the looming Islamo-fascist threat. Legislators who do not understand that are ignorant of the facts. Or, is it that they do understand it, and they have their own agenda in play?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Extremist Bus Driver Warning-Trouble In Residence

Do you ever wonder why the FBI periodically releases terrorist threat warnings similar to the current one warning about foreign extremists driving school buses in the U.S.?

Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police.

And then the FBI immediately discounts the information:

An FBI spokesman said, "Parents and children have nothing to fear."
Really now! Why is it that police need to be advised of the cautionary bulletin if there is nothing to fear for parents and children? Well, the FBI is not really discounting the information when they seek to mollify the citizen’s fears.

The fact of the matter is that the FBI can not possibly successfully fight the very real threat to the safety of this country occasioned upon us by extremists currently in our country without the help of local police agencies. And, contrary to the FBI’s traditional attitude of rarely sharing information with local law enforcement, the FBI is now forced to pass information to the locals. And, the FBI knows that the information will leak out to the press. You can be sure that the FBI perceives that there is a very real problem, or they would not have made a peep. On the other hand, the majority of bus drivers, who look like what you might imagine an extremist to look like, share nothing with extremists except that their lineage hails from the same areas of the world as the extremists. And, how is it that the public is expected to discern the difference? By the way, assumptions about what an extremist looks like are often wrong.

The FBI is caught between a rock and a hard place. They must simultaneously warn law enforcement and calm a public that understandably will be alarmed.

So, here is the message America: trouble is already in residence; demand that your national and local law enforcement leave no stone unturned.

I Love Santa Cruz-You Probably Don’t Believe That

Over the last year and a half, I’ve bashed the Santa Cruz area a good number of times. And, the bashees deserve every whack. But while the dominant politics run to the left, it does not mean that the area is bereft of good people. I have been routinely pleased by the service I’ve received in a number of stores. And, cheerful service is a good measure of the service person’s contentment with life. This time it was the Santa Cruz Cost-Plus, again, the Santa Cruz Harley Davidson dealership, and a Capitola Starbucks store. Friendly service is a trait that is becoming more of a rarity than I like.

What else do I like about the area? The ocean, the trees, the greenness of the vegetation. I’m not real excited about all the rain, but that’s why it is so green. I also appreciate what I call the “alternative” nature of many of the inhabitants. I relate to people who appreciate and explore the alternative world of health and spirituality. There is much more to the world than what is normally accepted in more conservative areas of the country.

It is true that a greater proportion of liberal people delve into the alternative world than do conservatives, but that does not mean that conservatives are absent. Perhaps what it takes for both conservative and liberal alike is to not be exclusively married to one of the fundamental Abraham based religions.

Update:

Add to the list the Safeway in Aptos.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Back in the Land of Redwoods & Fools

I drive all over Southern California and witness all sorts of bumper stickers from the profane to the political, with the latter often running to the insane. Bumper stickers offer a window into the minds of those who plaster their cars with sacred messages.

Nowhere matches the Santa Cruz, Berkeley and San Francisco areas in Northern California for the intensity and youthful dedication to the half-baked, leftist, anarchist, and environmental philosophies. The youth slavishly conform to the sloppy style of dress that passes for high fashion among the inexperienced and immature minds, which ache for peace and a world where animals are not eaten. As if they had a clue as to what it takes to have peace. Only fools and the immature would confuse the anti-war message with peace.

On a recent trip from Southern California, I left the agricultural area of Castroville, with its prominent Hispanic culture, and at Highway 1 entered once again into the university sphere of influence. Proof was right there in front of me. Plastered on the rear of a Subaru, were messages of anti-Pres. George W. Bush, animal rights and organic clothing.

I apologize for the poor quality of photos as they were taken through a dirty windshield while on the move.


An organic clothing message:

A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals message:

The driver of the car was a male white in his early 20’s, with a large red bushy beard and an unkempt pile of hair. The passenger was a female white, approximately the same age, with straight unadorned hair, no cosmetic makeup and plane as a board. Both were stylishly dressed in the manner of their genre.

A Subaru, anti-Bush, animal rights and organic clothing; the only things missing were pictures of Chi Guevara and a marijuana plant. There you have it, the politically correct bearing true witness to the elitist college philosophies which often passes for intellectual thought in today’s American universities.

So, how did I know that this car was associated with the elitist halls of higher education? That is a no brainer. There was also a Stanford sticker in the window.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

My Type of Immigrant

Angel Regalado-Contreras is my type of immigrant. Today he is a new American citizen. He earned his citizenship by service to the United States of America. A resident of Simi Valley, Contreras joined the army, was deployed to Iraq and seriously wounded. Read his story here.

Contreras is just the type of person that I want immigrating to this country. The illegal aliens, turn around and go back.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

CAIR, the Islamic Version of the ACLU

Do you remember the Imans who were evicted from the US Airways flight last year because they raised fears of a terrorism incident by their deliberate and provocative behavior? A report today says that the predictable lawsuit is being filed by CAIR.

CAIR is showing its true anti-American colors. And, why not? The ACLU has gotten away with it for years.

Previous Blog:
American Muslim Speaks Out

NY Times On Cooling Gore’s Global Warming Hype

There is no doubt that human activity negatively affects the environment in a multitude of ways. Human activity has contributed to the extinction of a vast number of species and degraded the environment. And, that’s generally not a good thing in an ecosystem that is diversity based. Not to be outdone, Mother Nature herself if not shy about wiping out plant and animal species. The key question is how much insult can the ecosystem absorb? The Al Gore global warming bandwagon asserts that the earth has reached the tipping point. Scientifically, Gore’s point is not universally accepted. Politically, Gore’s point is perfect for the leftist agenda because they need something to catch the attention of the public and counter the real now and here developing worldwide disaster of Islamofacism, which they are ignoring.

But, maybe the Gore message is beginning to founder on its own hype. Today’s article in the NY Times entitled, From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype, suggests that is the case.

Hollywood has a thing for Al Gore and his three-alarm film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won an Academy Award for best documentary. So do many environmentalists, who praise him as a visionary, and many scientists, who laud him for raising public awareness of climate change.

But part of his scientific audience is uneasy. In talks, articles and blog entries that have appeared since his film and accompanying book came out last year, these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous. They are alarmed, some say, at what they call his alarmism.

When the preeminent left leaning NY Times jumps ship, something is up.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Combat On Your Behalf

As you sip your latte, someone is in combat on your behalf.

Starbucks, Way Too American for the Chinese

Starbucks, that ubiquitous, over-priced and highly successful example of American entrepreneurial and capitalistic spirit is stirring-up Chinese discontent in Bejing.

A Chinese lawmaker revived calls for the removal of a Starbucks coffee shop from Beijing's famed Forbidden City, saying its presence was a smear on China's historical legacy,…

Starbucks "can no longer be allowed to taint China's national culture…

You can read that to mean that Starbucks has injected too much Americanism into China, which is at odds with Chinese nationalistic ardor. The next thing you know, the Internet will have to be curtailed to protect Chinese populace from its corrupting influence. You say the Chinese are already censoring the Internet? Oh well, the Chinese authorities can just run over the tainted citizens with tanks. Been there, done that.

Sex Offenders, Moral Morass-Exhibit Two

(Formerly titled: Sex Offenders-Jail or Treat Them?)

There are plenty of horrendous criminal acts, but perhaps the ones that wrench at us the most are sex offenses. That is especially true when the victim is a child. Judging from the amount and character of anti-sex crime legislation in recent years, it is clear that the public has less tolerance for sex crimes than other types of crime. Perhaps that is because such a large proportion of the public has some personal experience with the crime.

Richard B. Krueger, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote in a piece published in the LA Times entitled, The new American witch hunt:

Increasingly, legislation dealing with sex offenders is being passed that is punitive, untested, expensive and, in many cases, counterproductive — demonizing people who commit sexual offenses without offering any empirical information that the new laws will reduce sexually violent crime.

Whoa, that sounds just a little too soft-headed to me. I tend to be one of those guys who insist upon personal responsibility and not one to put the onus upon society to try and make someone a safe member in the community.

Krueger made the claim that:

…recidivism rates for sexual offenders are among the lowest of any class of criminals.

Naturally, it’s not quite that simple. The Center for Sex Offender Management has a long piece examining the issue in depth.

While any offender’s subsequent reoffending is of public concern, the prevention of sexual violence is particularly important, given the irrefutable harm that these offenses cause victims and the fear they generate in the community.
Researchers must also continue to accumulate evidence about the relationship of static and dynamic factors to recidivism—such data can assist practitioners in making more accurate assessments of the likelihood of reoffending. In particular, researchers must strive to identify dynamic characteristics associated with sex offending behavior that can serve as the focus for intervention. This information can be utilized to categorize the level of risk posed by offenders, and help determine whether a particular offender is appropriate for treatment and specialized supervision. However, in order to make objective and empirically based decisions about the type of treatment and conditions of supervision that would best control the offender and protect the public, more rigorous research is needed to study the effects of various treatment approaches and community supervision on recidivism.

When it comes to sex crimes, certainly there are degrees of severity, which then raises the question as to what should constitute a sex crime. That definition, of course, will vary according to local community standards. For instance, in San Francisco and Seattle it is permissible to parade nude in public. In most other cities that will get you arrested and permanently branded as a sex offender. In some parts of this country, an act of adultery or even cohabitation without the benefit of marriage can get you a sex offender classification. Take North Dakota for instance,

North Dakota is one of the few states that outlaws cohabitation, which is defined as a man and woman living together "openly and notoriously" as if they were married.

It is listed as a sex crime in state law, alongside adultery and incest. There are few records of a cohabitation case being prosecuted, aside from a North Dakota Supreme Court appeal in the 1930s.


Some legislators in North Dakota have been trying to repeal that law. The fact that as of Jan 2007 they have not succeeded gives you an idea about the mind set of many North Dakotans.

If we can just agree upon what a sex crime is, maybe we can start to decide the appropriate action to be taken to ensure community safety. I am skeptical about the efficacy of sex crime treatment and prefer the throw the key away approach. But, perhaps we can stop fearing our genitals and exempt from the sex crime classification the naked body or the living in sin, North Dakota style.

Previous Blogs:
Nudity and Sex, Moral Morass-Exhibit One
American Indian Nudity Destroyed
American Indians Did It in the Nude
YMCA Doesn’t Stand for Christian or Male Anymore and You Can’t Go Nude
Spirit of Justice Returned to Her Natural State

Her Embarrassment Killed Her

Elephant Seal Calving

Elephant seals calve along the California coast. Here's a shot of a female and two calves. Only one of which is hers. Photo taken in February near Cambria.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Gun Control-Social Progressive Mantra Crumbling

On both coasts, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, there is a long standing aversion to allowing citizens to own or possess handguns. Handguns are principally defensive firearms, as opposed to long guns, which are considered offensive firearms. When given a choice, no knowledgeable person would elect to take a handgun as a primary weapon to a gun fight. So, what is with this social progressive agenda to deprive citizens of a tool for personal defense?

Washington D.C. has had a ban on handguns since 1976. That law is now ruled unconstitutional.

I wrote on San Francisco passing a handgun ban early last year. Last July SF’s ban was ruled unconstitutional.

Judicial common sense prevailed on two coasts. That is undoubtedly giving the social progressives heartburn.

Previous Blog:
San Francisco Gun Idiocy

Pres. Bush and His Bad Spirits

Pres. George W. Bush is scheduled to visit the Mayan archaeological site Iximche, Guatemala, next week as part of his goodwill visit to South and Central America. As expected, there are the anti-Bush demonstrators at every stop. Now it has been announced that Mayan priests are going to purify the Mayan sites of Bush’s “bad spirits” at the conclusion of the visit.

“Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders…” said:

…the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace. He also said the rites _ which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles _ would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.
When it comes to energy, spirits and all that sort of thing, it is true that there is far more to this world than what is ascribed to by western science. We in the western world, perhaps like other parts of the world, are guilty of thinking that we have a lock on the “truth.” Anyone with a scintilla of exposure to other cultural experiences knows the absurdity of believing such a thing.

Tiney stated:

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture,"…
I suspect that the interpretation of the intent of the Mayan spirit guides has more to do with leftist philosophy and anti-Americanism than it does with “bad spirits.” Only a leftist could interpret the actions of Pres. George W. Bush, relative to “migrant brothers in the United States,” as “persecution.” And, only a leftist would say that Pres. George W. Bush has provoked “wars.” Note the use of the plural with the word war. Last time I looked, there have only been two wars during Pres. George W. Bush’s regime, and the first was a direct result of Al-Qaida provocation with the 9-11 incidents.

But, why quibble about the number of wars? The truth of the matter is that western civilization is embroiled in a worldwide fourth generation war, the likes of which has never been seen previously. And, while the western world is under attack, there is the continuing intra-western world war between the forces of capitalism and socialism, and the latter’s leftist extremism. If the western world does not destroy the Islamo-fascist threat, there is no reason to worry about our ignorance of the “spirit world.”

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Nudity and Sex, Moral Morass-Exhibit One

You have a little child, who is naturally curious about his/her body, and we, as adults, immediately begin programming the little mind with personal and cultural prejudices pertaining to sex and the nude body. It is perfectly OK to tell the child the correct names for anatomical parts, as long as certain prescribed body parts are not mentioned. If they are mentioned, we allow and encourage the child to use slang or childish names. We can’t call a vagina a vagina because it is a “who-who.” You know the routine. The child grows into an adult carrying forward an unhealthy view of life, which is personally and culturally damaging. Here is Exhibit One.

A writer to Annie’s Mailbox:

…my sister takes a shower, her son goes into the bathroom and talks to her. I am horrified by this and feel it is wrong. I know nothing sexual is going on, but still, it's inappropriate.
I then reported this behavior to Child Protective Services. My sister told the social worker that after she had surgery many months ago, her son began helping her with her showers because she couldn't do it alone. The social worker told my sister that I was causing problems and she and her son should consider moving out.

Annie’s reply:

Of course your sister should not be showering with her 13-year-old son in the room…

Sis needs to understand that it is not in her son's best interest for her to create such an intimate environment with a sexually developing boy who loves his mother.

Guessing the writer’s and Annie’s prejudice:
  1. Nudity is sex
  2. Nudity is intimacy
  3. Nudity is psychologically damaging to a 13 year old boy

Previous Blogs:
American Indian Nudity Destroyed
American Indians Did It in the Nude
YMCA Doesn’t Stand for Christian or Male Anymore and You Can’t Go Nude
Spirit of Justice Returned to Her Natural State
Her Embarrassment Killed Her