Christian Charity. One Bleeding Red Weal at a Time.

Two articles, here and here, tell the story of a young girl who was accused of being pregnant by her highschool principal, after student rumors were passed along to him. The girl denied the allegations. After further arm twisting, she admitted to a favored female teacher, brought in to gain a confession in private, that she might be. The school then sent her to a "Christian" pregnancy counselling center. They did a pregnancy test, confirming that she was indeed gravid. The result of the pregnancy test was sent to the school, then disseminated to the staff, students and parents of students in the community.

The school then expelled her, with only two weeks left in the school year. There are three outcomes that this young woman now suffers. First, she loses a year of school credit. Second, all of her peers at school are made aware of her condition and she is humiliated before them and not allowed to graduate with her class. Third, if she did decide now to have an abortion, everyone in the local, inbred, fundamentalist community would know and she would be further branded by the community, not only as a whore but a baby murdering whore. She can probably kiss that scholarship to Bob Jones University goodbye too.

The parents of this girl are now suing the school, since all of this was done by the school, start to finish, without their knowledge or consent.

I'm not sure I have much sympathy for the parents, since they voluntarily committed the education of their child, into the hands of this snake pit of ululating weasels. I do have sympathy for the girl, who may not have had much input into where she went to school.

I do have some questions. Where is the father of this fetus, was he a student at the same school and if so, why was he not expelled? Why would anyone send their children to a school run by such obviously fucked up, black dirt ignorant, Bible thumping, snake handling scum?

I know a lot of Christians. I live with them, work with them, grew up with them. They are good people. Kind, gentle, considerate, loving, non judgemental people. They belong to many denominations. The people depicted as running this school and pregnancy counselling center, besides being unethical are not Christian by any definition.

What's Your Take On The Cancer Boy ?

Hodgkin's Disease has been one of the most successfully treated cancers for decades. There was a family friend who got Hodgkin's, in his teens, almost fifty years ago. He went through an exhaustive therapeutic process. Last I heard, he was fine.

If I was a young person with Hodgkin's and I knew with treatment there was a 95% cure rate, I'd go for it.

Still, the Cancer Boy seems aware of the situation and his chances either way. I say he's made an informed decision. So be it.

Red Shoes, Dark Continent

When the Pope was in Africa, last month, it seemed like he was universally acclaimed by Africans. He made bizarre statements about why Africans should stop using condoms and was immediately proclaimed as some kind of scientific genius by seemingly all Africans of intellect.

Here is a response to the Pope's African visit that seems more reasoned, if not very enthusiastic. I don't know how many Africans agree with it. At least we know there is at least one published dissenter to the otherwise universal Pope adoration. This guy seems to be a lawyer in Nigeria.

Memorial Day is for Livers

I saw an obit in the paper today for a guy my age, who died suddenly last Friday. Rich guy. Family money. USC. Law degree. Worked several years as an assistant district attorney, then retired to private life. Wife and kids. Country, hunting, garden and beach clubs. Travelled freely. Several homes, both in and out of the local area. Liked the ponies at Santa Anita. The obit said he was a happy guy. Laughed loud, hard and often. Why not? Sounds like he had a good life.

Last week, when we were both alive, many differences could have been pointed out between the two of us. You know what the biggest difference is between us now? I'm still alive. To you, my life might appear to be privileged. It might not. We share at least one thing in common, that the dead guy will never again have. We're both alive.

Take a lesson from the dead on Memorial day. You'll be dead too, soon enough. Today though, you're still alive. Go out to the park. Share a beer with a guy who claims to be a homeless veteran. Throw a stick to a dog. Cook burgers for some kids, give a couple to the homeless guy. Cheer while the kids play a little ball. Play a little yourself, if your knees still work. It's never just another day, when you're above ground. Just ask a dead guy.

What did the Doctor say, Luke?

I love stories like this. They usually are more prevalent after Memorial Day, when the Summer alcohol imbibing season really swings into effect. Do you think sucking the snake venom out of the dog's nose really saved it's life?

Do you think this guy really spent $14,000 on anti venom to save his puppy? I wouldn't have. He doesn't look like he has it to spare. Then, he had to spend $14,000 on anti- venom for himself. Expensive day.

Rattlesnake venom is a protein. If you suck it out of a snake bite and swallow it, once it reaches the stomach, the digestive juices denature it, neutralizing its effects. It has to be injected into the bloodstream to cause ill effects. In order for a venom sucker to be adversely affected, they would have to have large open wounds or lesions, in the mouth or esophagus, capable of absorbing significant amounts of the, by this time, quite dilute venom, mixed liberally with dog squeezings.

I think maybe this whole story lacks veracity. Very picaresque though.

Wish I Was In The Land Of Groton, Good Times There Are Not Forgotten. Look Away, Look Away, Look Away, Duty Sock.

Spending a few years of your youth on a submarine at sea is an experience not too much like anything else I can think of.

Sometimes during periods of extreme death defying danger, they make you get into your bunks with orders to be quiet, breath slow, and fall asleep. No shit.

Then, during a time of mind numbing boredom, for no reason at all, they will keep you awake for days on end. They perform bizarre drills simulating things that could never happen, during which you are required to perform improbable acts. They repeat the drills over and over again. You become an expert at spraying imaginary flame retardants, over surfaces not really burning. Then they demand that you remove every speck of debris and drop of hydraulic oil from your assigned cleaning space and shine all its surfaces to a high gloss, while the guy next to you is pushing more oil and debris into your space in a vain attempt to clean his own. Hundreds of pounds of paper towels are used up for this purpose, compacted into bales and stored away. All the while, all around you, hundreds of valves are cycling, releasing more oil and miles of ventilation ducts are blowing grit and dust into these streaks of oil, newly released in the areas you have just cleaned. Eventually the XO comes by, pronounces you unsat and tells you to start over.

My favorite part was drinking really strong, greasy, bitter coffee by the gallon and chain smoking carton after carton of cigarettes that they sold you almost for free. You quickly developed the kind of cardiac arrythmias that immediately kill you if you aren't young and healthy. The backs of your eyelids become as rough as sand paper but it's OK, you start to like the feeling and you rarely blink anyway.

Old Paul Simon songs get stuck in your head. That Mess Specialist Three, with pale skin and funny lesions, the one that fried eggs in the morning, started to like me, a lot. And you know what, I started to like him back.

Psychedelic.

The Navy Wants You, Baby!

Man Of the Week

Calvin Borel won the Preakness on Saturday, riding a filly, Rachel Alexandra. He won the Kentucky Derby last month, for the second time, on Mine that bird. This guy is 42 years old. He keeps life simple. He communes with thoroughbred race horses.

He's been a jockey since he was eight. He's been working the circuit, full time, since he was twelve. He doesn't read. He doesn't write. He doesn't ride the big racing events on the East or West coasts, even though he has had the opportunity to do just that, after garnering the fame which came with winning the Kentucky Derby two years ago. He lives with the horses he rides. He mucks out their stables. He feeds them. He exercises them daily. He trains them to race.

He's not married. He has a girlfriend. He lets her handle his financial matters. This may be his one big mistake. He should develop a business relationship with a banker and a CPA and let them supervise each other, while managing his money. He should just keep riding horses. He seems pretty good at it. It seems like steady work. He seems to like it.

Calvin is the kind of guy that every boy secretly wishes he could be. I know I always did. I still do.

Get Your Passports If You Want To Be A Real American

Next month, all American citizens will have to get a passport if they want to go across the border, even to Mexico or Canada for a day or two. Most Americans don't have a passport. I don't. I've never needed one. A little camping in Canada. A week or two in Baja. That's about my speed.

I'm sure that all terrorists, drug smugglers and borderland gangsters have unimpeachable credentials. What a joke. What's really going on here? Whatever it is, it sure as fuck isn't about homeland security.

I'll get a passport. I won't like it. Fuck George Bush. String him up. And his little dog too!

Responsible Gun Ownership

I believe in pretty much unrestricted gun ownership. Here's one problem with that. There are a lot of people who, while they might not be immediately identifiable as unsuitable for gun ownership, would be better off winnowed out of the process.

I hope this does not include my old shipmate Bothenook, but the resemblance is uncanny.

Higher Hill on the Right

Wingnut politics in America has staked it's chances for survival on the abortion issue. It's interesting that they are doing that, because it's not a pressing issue but one which has been more or less in stasis for 35 years. What's even more interesting is that the Roman Catholic Church has staked it's credibility as a relevant institution in America on the same issue. Most Catholics do not support the Wingnut abortion line or any of their other positions. The only explanation for this can be that the Church fears the kind of marginalization, as a quaint cultural relic, with no real influence, that is their current role in most of Europe.

Abortion is going to be the major point of contention in domestic politics during the Obama administration between the right and left. This will be fun to watch because as strident as anti abortion voices have been and continue to be, Obama refuses to engage. Unlike politicians on the Right, Obama apparently faces no lefty litmus test on support of the issue, upon which support for him depends.

The Right has a much higher hill to climb on abortion than the Left. The Left doesn't have to convince you that abortion is a good thing. It only has to convince you that it is a decision that women; your mother, sister, girlfriend, or wife, have the right and the faculties to make. The Right must convince you that abortion be punished with criminal penalties and that none of the women you know, are responsible enough to decide whether or not to have one, when the situation arises. That's harsh.

I had been thinking that the Republicans might want to put the social issues on the back burner and go with issues of fiscal responsibility. It doesn't look like that will be the case.

The Catholic Church seems to be preparing to force its members to either accept a more Orthodox religion and the lifestyle that goes with it, or formally separate from the Church.

These two organizations, the Republican party and the Roman Catholic Church are like cornered, injured predators, unused to being the hunted and preparing to fight to the death for continued existence.

If there is going to be a time for reactionary societal forces to make a final stand, it is now. It may already be too late. The demographics of the non elderly do not favor their positions.

Culinary Orthodoxy Matters

A lot of conservative commentators are critical over the way that Barack Obama likes his hamburgers. They don't like that he doesn't use ketchup. They don't like that he prefers the meat fully cooked. Most of all, they don't like that he requested Dijon mustard.

You know what? I agree with the pundits. A good quality burger with a thick patty should be cooked on the rare side. I almost always use ketchup, in some form or other to dress my burger. Dijon mustard has too subtle a blend of flavors to work on a fully dressed hamburger. I like to use regular old yellow mustard with a generous amount of fresh grated horseradish mixed in. The flavors in that really come through.

I don't really judge a persons politics by their gustatory inclinations. Obama can still be an OK president even if we don't share the same taste in burger preparation.

Eating My Way to the Straits of Juan de Fuca

I booked a cruise starting next Sunday, a few days ago, on the Carnival Splendor. They cancelled its regular weekly itinerary out of Long Beach to Mexico, and it's going to Canada instead. This was due to the swine flu pandemic. What a joke. Most people don't want to go to Canada this early in the Spring and cancelled their reservations. It's a humongous ship, that can carry up to 3700 passengers in pampered luxury, so they were literally giving the ducats away. I couldn't pass it up. It turns out to be pretty much free and will be a nice little break from my usual very relaxed schedule. I'll take a few books along and wallow in high quality, 24 hour, all you can eat buffet. We will take some nature walks on Victoria Island, high tea at the Empress Hotel, and prowl around the Chinese sections of Vancouver.

Since it is so cheap anyway, I'm not planning on doing a lot of ancillary spending. One of the things they really soak you for on board is Internet, at a few dollars a minute. Usually I never turn the computer off and am connected 24/7. I'm sure at least one of my four regular readers will miss my 3 or 4 normal posts next week. Sorry. If you can get to Long Beach cheap, you should consider coming along. We can get a table together. Last I looked, they were still selling $200 tickets. Try cruisedirect.com. The whole thing, for two people, is costing me $500 and I'm getting a $250 kickback on my Carnival cruisebucks account that should cover gratuities, parking, and all other incidentals. You don't need a passport 'til June.

Not A Pejorative Term

I love this. Joe the Plumber won't let Queers near his kids. He explains that Queer is not a pejorative term because queer means "odd or strange" and that's what gays are.

Yeah! Boy Howdy, and Nigger is just Latin for black, too. What could be wrong with that? We need to get Miss California and Bristol Palin to weigh in on this one.

Arnold Keeps Things Interesting

I smoked my first marijuana cigarette during the Christmas/New Years holidays of 1966-1967. That's going on forty two years. Many people I know have smoked marijuana regularly during that whole time.

They turned out to be no different than anybody else. They are no more likely to have committed crimes or be guilty of moral turpitude. They are no less likely to be religiously active or successful financially. They are no more or less likely to have used or abused other drugs, including alcohol. I believe they are less likely to have used tobacco habitually.

It is far past the time for us to have a serious discussion about the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana.

Liberals, Quake in Your Boots

The Wing nuts do not feel that they should have to moderate their views in order to increase support among the voting center of the populace. Why should they, they're sitting pretty.

They have George W. Bush, the greatest war president since FDR in their corner and his entire former cabinet and array of statesman and advisers, patriots and heroes, one and all. They have a stable of former Congressional leaders, Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, Dick Armey, and a score of others whose names strike fear into the liberal heart. They have the choirboys of the court; Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito and their leader, Seizin' John Roberts, who get their marching orders from Pope Fester himself. They have an intellectual brain trust that virtually controls the media and public opinion, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, both Lauras, Doctor and Ingraham, and most importantly, Steve Doocy. They also have within their ranks the most powerful and inspirational figures in popular culture since Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone; Sara Palin, Joe the Plumber and Miss California. They are fighting against the most galvanizing and perverted social forces in modern times, those of abortion, sodomy and climate change.

Don't ever forget, they have God on their side, too.

Mine That Bird

Owned by a tinhorn racketeer. Trained at a dusty, quarterhorse ranch in New Mexico's Hondo River Valley, by an old rodeo roustabout. Small head, short neck, spindly legs, ridden to victory by a slap happy alcoholic, with no teeth. He beat the best young thoroughbreds in the World, sliding past the front runner on the inside rail, on the home stretch, in America's premier horse race, at fifty to one odds.

I love America. Fire up a Lucky Strike. Have a drink.

Everybody Liked Jack Kemp

He was an admirer and disciple of Ronald Reagan. It should have been the other way around. He was everything in fact, that Ronnie only pretended to be.

He wasn't a racist or a sexist or a religious fanatic. His kids and wife really loved him. He always performed better than expectations and best of all when things got tough. He was a better athlete than he should have been. A better politician. A better businessman. A better family man.

He worked hard to do the best he could and to help others to do the same. He wasn't mean. He wasn't cynical or corrupt.

Everybody knows people like Jack Kemp when they're growing up. Everybody admires them and wishes they were more like them. The factors that make them so admirable usually limit them from going as far as they should. Jack got pretty far in life but in the end, the same was true of him.

He was a great American. We could have used more like him. It's our fault there weren't more, not his.

Rest in Peace, Jack.

What the Fuck's a "Social Conservative"

I believe in the merits of free enterprise and that all should have an equal chance to prosper.

Before we pass a death sentence on someone, we should make really, really sure they did the crime. Other than that, I don't have a problem with the death penalty or which crimes it should be applied to. Prisons should be hell holes of punishment and despair. Prisoners can rehabilitate themselves after their sentence is served, if they don't want to go back to prison or face the gibbet.

I don't think people should be allowed, as a general rule, to starve or freeze to death but other than that I am against social welfare benefits of any kind. County workhouses are not a bad idea. People could be fed, provide needed public sector labor and learn basic employee skills.

I think free, public education should be available but only to those who are enthusiastic about applying themselves and are intelligent enough to benefit from it. Thugs, criminals , wastrels and retards need not apply. Those who abuse the privilege of public education should not simply be expelled, they should be punished harshly.

I think citizens should have access to the best and most advanced lethal weapons made, no exceptions for the size of ordinance or rate of fire. They should elect leaders and form themselves into militias for mutual protection against any and all external threats.

People should be able to live, think and believe any way they want, as long as they don't interfere with others just trying to do the same.

I hate the drooling, inbred, religionists, whether they be casted Hindus, woman stoning Islamists, Papist inquisitionists, glossolalian snake handlers or Buddhist navel gazers, who want to tell me there is some "natural law", imparted to them exclusively by their deity and that I must observe it by not practicing birth control, not working at certain times, dressing in certain ways or whatever the fuck it is their pasty, little, two bit savior wants. These people have highjacked the entire Republican political party in this country. They call themselves "social conservatives". I don't even know what the fuck that's supposed to mean, except they apparently want to enslave the rest of us.

My family have been Republicans since before the Civil War. Who are these degenerate, leprous, scumbags who have taken over my Party? I curse them and their children's children.

Pope Sorry, Again or Still

Pope Fester met with a delegation of Canadian aboriginals at the Vatican. He apologized to them for an entire century, during which young children were ripped from their homes and families and forced into Catholic Church run boarding institutions, far away. There they were held in bondage, against their will, commonly for over a decade, raised coldly and impersonally under the direction of priests and nuns, subjected to harsh physical and psychological punishments over extended periods of time, for offenses they didn't even understand they had committed, sodomized and otherwise repeatedly sexually abused, at the hands of perverted and opportunistic staff. When they complained or rebelled against the treatment they recieved, their lives were made even worse or terminated. The grounds of these children's boarding institutions are littered with unmarked graves, though the children that filled them were unusually resilient, stoic and hardy.

This resulted in a native culture that was and still is rife with isolation, distrust of authority, mental illness, domestic violence, criminality, substance abuse and suicide.

He wants everyone to know, he couldn't be sorrier.

To paraphrase Madeline Kahn, in Blazing Saddles. " What a nice guy !"

Most of these institutions were closed in the 1970s. Even after they closed, one of the favorite strategies of the Church in dealing with documented pedophile priests was to transfer them to the ministry of remote, Canadian aboriginal communities, where complaints were rarely lodged. In these communities the sexual abuse of children by priests was so commonplace it was regarded as part of White culture that must be accepted. It's not uncommon to find whole regions of remote native communities, where every single child, over multiple generations, has been the victim of priestly sexual abuse.

Gay Marriage May Not Be Such A Good Thing

I'm pretty sure no more than 3 % or so of the population are homosexual by nature. On the face of it, gay marriage doesn't seem like such a bad thing. I'm beginning to have doubts. Heterosexual marriage has been one of the bulwarks of human society for a long time. Homosexuality, while it may not be stigmatized as much in some cultures as in others, is not mainstream in too many places.

Not everybody in society is real smart or real successful. Not everyone is able to read and write well. The ability to actually evaluate large quantities of conflicting data and come up with personal opinions about individual subjects is beyond the abilities of most. A great many people simply accept the cultural norms as great truths by which to live. They find a job, go to work every day for forty five years and do what everyone else does. One of the things that most people of even marginal ability and intelligence aspire to is marriage. For many of them it's not an easy thing. Men and women are not that much alike. Unless you're dealing with an arranged marriage, getting someone of the opposite sex to agree to a life long sexual bond, requires skills that a person may never have developed or use again, unless they are interested in fornication. Of course almost everyone is interested in fornication but it is too expensive and time consuming for most.

If gay marriage was not stigmatized, it's possible that a lot of heterosexual young adults would simply settle for a life together with a same sex friend. Someone of similar interests and outlook. The sex might not be everything they ever dreamed about but it likely wouldn't be with an opposite sex spouse either and probably beats the fear and uncertainty of dating.

Another problem would be with slippery slope issues. Some young men would probably like to marry their sisters or girl cousins. These are females that they have known for a lifetime and are comfortable with. Most people have already formed an opinion about polygamy involving one man and many women. What about a group of young men who pool their resources to afford one really attractive and compliant female. After all, twenty minutes a day is really about enough quality time, isn't it? Is that something society should legally sanction? It would have sounded pretty good to me when I was twenty.

I think we may not, as a society, have evaluated all of the consequences of gay marriage. What do you think?