anyone else feel like we’re falling off the deep end?
Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment – We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world. We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts. Much of what has made the modern world in general, and the United States in particular, a free and prosperous society comes directly from insights that arose during the Enlightenment. Too bad we’re chucking it all out and returning to the Dark Ages. Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality. Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians. For example, North Carolina law-makers recently passed legislation against sea level rise. A day later, the Virginia legislature required that references to global warming, climate change and sea level risebe excised from a proposed study on sea level rise. Last year, the Texas Department of Environmental Quality, which had commissioned a study on Galveston Bay, cut all references to sea level rise – the main point of the study. As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it: if your science gives you results you don’t like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved. And the descent into the Dark Ages is marked by more than global warming. Take austerity budgets. There is an extensive historical record showing that implementing austerity measures in an economic slowdown is counter productive. And this data is backed up by current experience in Europe, where austerity measures have been disastrous. So the data is telling us austerity during a jobs crisis hasn’t worked in the past and isn’t working now. What to do? Pass an austerity budget, of course. Welcome to the Dark Ages. The litany of ignorance goes on and on. Teach Creationism. Teach the “controversy” on climate science and intelligent design. Declare deregulation – which was a primary cause of the 2008 economic collapse – to be the solution to it. Preach trickle down economics, even after it has failed every time it’s been adopted; even as we watch wealth rocket up the income brackets. What’s next? Give the flat-earthers a say. Oh hell, why stop there. Let’s put Earth back in the center of the solar system where it belongs. We don’t need no stinkin’ science. We don’t need no pesky reality. We just gotta pass a few laws and declare things to be the way we want them to be, facts be damned. You know, keep your government hands off my Medicare.
we need to cut social security to solve the deficit crisis… except social security has nothing to do with the deficit.
or (equal time for other fools) you can’t cut social security because the workers paid for it themselves, you have to make the rich pay for it instead.
oh, and medical costs are going to go up, so we have to cut Medicare.
Children seem rarely to report even persistent molestation. Simple solution: all children must be asked. Once a year?
Some kind of protocol must be worked out. Even if the method turns out not so good a detecting it will serve as a huge deterrent. Even if a child does not tell this year because he or she may do so next year and because it will put the matter much more in the upper thoughts when the child turns adult.
Ask them over and over again and you may be surprised that the answer that you seek is the answer that you will receive. It may not be the reality, but it will be a response to a persistent question. “Gee, maybe I’m supposed to say yes, Mr. So&so did that to me.”
The McMartin Preschool case comes to mind. I assume that you are responding to the publicity surrounding the recent Sandusky trial and all the related issues that it brought out. Note that those children did not need to be questioned every year. If responsible people had done their duty to report and deal with apparently obvious indicators that continuously present the criminal behavior would have been brought to an abrupt ending long ago. The same is true of the many cases of abuse surrounding the Catholic church and several small sects that have long been known to coerce extremely young girls into “marriages” to church elders.
Dealing with child sexual abuse only requires the cooperation of others who are close enough to the perpetrators nad the victims to be well aware the something wrong is going on. That rarely happens, it seems. If all children are repeatedly questioned on any issue the questioners will get the answers that they seek. Regardless of the truth of a matter.
You are right about the danger of false accusations — ther never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
You are right about the danger of false accusations — ther never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
You are right about the danger of false accusations — there never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
Yet another story explaining how Bain Capital is to capitalism as leeches are to medicine: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/politics/companies-ills-did-not-harm-romneys-firm.html?_r=4&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=all
Money quote: “In at least three of the seven bankruptcies, however, companies appear to have been made more vulnerable by debt taken on to return money to Bain and its investors in the form of dividends or share redemptions.”
anyone else feel like we’re falling off the deep end?
Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment –
We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world. We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts.
Much of what has made the modern world in general, and the United States in particular, a free and prosperous society comes directly from insights that arose during the Enlightenment.
Too bad we’re chucking it all out and returning to the Dark Ages.
Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality. Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians.
For example, North Carolina law-makers recently passed legislation against sea level rise. A day later, the Virginia legislature required that references to global warming, climate change and sea level rise be excised from a proposed study on sea level rise. Last year, the Texas Department of Environmental Quality, which had commissioned a study on Galveston Bay, cut all references to sea level rise – the main point of the study.
As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it: if your science gives you results you don’t like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved.
And the descent into the Dark Ages is marked by more than global warming. Take austerity budgets. There is an extensive historical record showing that implementing austerity measures in an economic slowdown is counter productive. And this data is backed up by current experience in Europe, where austerity measures have been disastrous.
So the data is telling us austerity during a jobs crisis hasn’t worked in the past and isn’t working now. What to do?
Pass an austerity budget, of course.
Welcome to the Dark Ages.
The litany of ignorance goes on and on. Teach Creationism. Teach the “controversy” on climate science and intelligent design. Declare deregulation – which was a primary cause of the 2008 economic collapse – to be the solution to it. Preach trickle down economics, even after it has failed every time it’s been adopted; even as we watch wealth rocket up the income brackets.
What’s next? Give the flat-earthers a say. Oh hell, why stop there. Let’s put Earth back in the center of the solar system where it belongs.
We don’t need no stinkin’ science. We don’t need no pesky reality. We just gotta pass a few laws and declare things to be the way we want them to be, facts be damned. You know, keep your government hands off my Medicare.
well, you could add
“social security is going broke” except it isn’t.
we need to cut social security to solve the deficit crisis… except social security has nothing to do with the deficit.
or (equal time for other fools) you can’t cut social security because the workers paid for it themselves, you have to make the rich pay for it instead.
oh, and medical costs are going to go up, so we have to cut Medicare.
Children seem rarely to report even persistent molestation. Simple solution: all children must be asked. Once a year?
Some kind of protocol must be worked out. Even if the method turns out not so good a detecting it will serve as a huge deterrent. Even if a child does not tell this year because he or she may do so next year and because it will put the matter much more in the upper thoughts when the child turns adult.
Ask them over and over again and you may be surprised that the answer that you seek is the answer that you will receive. It may not be the reality, but it will be a response to a persistent question. “Gee, maybe I’m supposed to say yes, Mr. So&so did that to me.”
The McMartin Preschool case comes to mind. I assume that you are responding to the publicity surrounding the recent Sandusky trial and all the related issues that it brought out. Note that those children did not need to be questioned every year. If responsible people had done their duty to report and deal with apparently obvious indicators that continuously present the criminal behavior would have been brought to an abrupt ending long ago. The same is true of the many cases of abuse surrounding the Catholic church and several small sects that have long been known to coerce extremely young girls into “marriages” to church elders.
Dealing with child sexual abuse only requires the cooperation of others who are close enough to the perpetrators nad the victims to be well aware the something wrong is going on. That rarely happens, it seems. If all children are repeatedly questioned on any issue the questioners will get the answers that they seek. Regardless of the truth of a matter.
You are right about the danger of false accusations — ther never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
Actually I am responding to an article by Emily JYffe who does the “Dear Prudence” column in “Slate” recording how she was molested by a 14 year old neighbor, the father of a friend and Farther Robert Drinan (!) of anti-war fame.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/06/why_don_t_sexual_assault_victims_speak_out_i_was_molested_three_times_here_s_why_i_never_told_my_family_or_the_police_.single.html
Like I said you have to work out some kind of protocol. I don’t see how anything else can ever work.
Oh, and as far as the Catholic Church is concerned: celibacy cannot cause incurable molesting? These guys are incurable, right.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/06/why_don_t_sexual_assault_victims_speak_out_i_was_molested_three_times_here_s_why_i_never_told_my_family_or_the_police_.single.html
You are right about the danger of false accusations — ther never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
Actually I am responding to an article by Emily JYffe who does the “Dear Prudence” column in “Slate” recording how she was molested by a 14 year old neighbor, the father of a friend and Farther Robert Drinan (!) of anti-war fame.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/06/why_don_t_sexual_assault_victims_speak_out_i_was_molested_three_times_here_s_why_i_never_told_my_family_or_the_police_.single.html
Like I said you have to work out some kind of protocol. I don’t see how anything else can ever work.
Oh, and as far as the Catholic Church is concerned: celibacy cannot cause incurable molesting? These guys are incurable, right.
You are right about the danger of false accusations — there never seems to be a happy medium. I remember my experiences going to court with some neighborhood kids in the Bronx in the late ’70s. In about half the felony cases a crime actually happened — if you don’t count the two most serious crimes. The worst; the good Samaritan getting involved was the only one to go to trial: the cases were dropped in (adult) Criminal Court — the Navy kid victim of the ax did not want to wait on Rikers Island pending the sorting out of the hit man’s (automatic, professional) counter-claim — leaving the prosecution changing sides; nobody left to prosecute but the 15 year old kid in Family Court (the Navy kid came back 3000 miles to testify; the hit man went home). The second most serious, but by the cops: the now 16 year old kid is spun 360 degrees, shirtless at arraignment for getting drunk and hitting a cop in the nose — showing 50 deep black and blue welts from the station house beating! — “Don’t hold chapel here” says the arraigning judge (the big judge of the courthouse arraigns). The kid ends up taking a plea to do a year on the rock.
Actually I am responding to an article by Emily JYffe who does the “Dear Prudence” column in “Slate” recording how she was molested by a 14 year old neighbor, the father of a friend and Father Robert Drinan (!) of anti-war fame.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/06/why_don_t_sexual_assault_victims_speak_out_i_was_molested_three_times_here_s_why_i_never_told_my_family_or_the_police_.single.html
Like I said you have to work out some kind of protocol. I don’t see how anything else can ever work.
Oh, and as far as the Catholic Church is concerned: celibacy cannot cause incurable molesting? These guys are incurable, right.
Yet another story explaining how Bain Capital is to capitalism as leeches are to medicine: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/politics/companies-ills-did-not-harm-romneys-firm.html?_r=4&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=all
Money quote:
“In at least three of the seven bankruptcies, however, companies appear to have been made more vulnerable by debt taken on to return money to Bain and its investors in the form of dividends or share redemptions.”