ACLU rapes Childrens

When we found out what had happened to little Jeffrey was part of a national criminal conspiracy to rape the children of America supported by the ACLU, I knew I had to write you – because together we can stop them from doing the same thing to your son, your grandson, or another boy you know. So please! Stop whatever you’re doing now, and read my enclosed letter...

This letter from Barbara Curley and the Traditional Values Coalition mentions NAMBLA a lot. But seeing as I'm in the office, I'm not going to do my usual amount of research. I hope you'll understand.

My heart goes out to the Curley family. Their 10-year-old son was a victim of two men, Salvatore Sicari and Charlie Jaynes. He was kidnapped, murdered, then raped. These are sick, twisted perverts who deserve to rot in prison.

After the murderers responsible were found guilty, the Curley family sued NAMBLA for wrongful death. The ACLU stepped in to defend NAMBLA on the basis of free speech. Technically and publically, NAMBLA does not condone or encourage rape.

It has resolved to "end the oppression of men and boys who have freely chosen mutually consenting relationships", and calls for "the adoption of laws that both protect children from unwanted sexual experiences and at the same time leave them free to determine the content of their own sexual experiences." NAMBLA's webpage states that 'NAMBLA does not provide encouragement, referrals or assistance for people seeking sexual contacts' and that it does not "engage in any activities that violate the law . . . [or] advocate that anyone else should [violate the law]."

I don't like either end of the spectrum in this case. We all know NAMBLA is a gang of child molesters with the mask of a political organization. The TVC ain't much better, in my humble opinion. We'll tackle everything that's wrong with the TVC another day. For now let's focus on today's letter.

NAMBLA is no doubt the most sick, perverted organization on the face of the earth. There are around 900 dues-paying pedophile members, whose ranks even included Nobel Prize winner and media darling Allen Ginsberg.

Wiki says this is true. I trust the Wiki. Another thing I can't really look into at the moment, sorry.

The plague of pedophilia is worse than you might think. In Great Britain, 1 in 200 adults are pedophiles!

Ugh. I feel so dirty plugging this stuff into Google. Let's just put this up as another statement that needs to be researched later on. I am going to need to scrub my browser history with bleach.

The ACLU sees nothing wrong with NAMBLA! According to John Roberts, Massachusetts ACLU Executive Director, NAMBLA publishes “erotic stories, poetry, pictures of nude boys. But he claims there was nothing on NAMBLA’s Web site that constituted a “criminal act.”

This part here is half bullshit. Of course the ACLU sees plenty wrong with NAMBLA.

The ACLU makes it clear, however, that it does not endorse NAMBLA's objectives. "We've never taken a position that sexual-consent laws are beyond the state's power to legislate," John Reinstein, attorney for the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in 1997. "I've never been able to fathom their position."

NAMBLA is very careful in how they present themselves for this reason. They aren't a corporation, they're just a club. They talk about lowering the age of consent, not statutory rape. They do not engage in criminal acts. They are very careful about this. All this is done so that they can operate freely under the protection of free speech and not be liable when a member goes out and does something like this. They know what they're encouraging. But they're just covering their hairy asses.

Because everyone is afforded equal rights, the ACLU is going to defend everyone whose rights are being stepped on. As you can see, this is both good and bad. The ACLU protects us good people... it has to protect the bad people, too.

You want to bring NAMBLA down? Hold them responsible? Going to have to do it in another way. It's not the ACLU's fault. It's how the law works.

You see, we need to raise another $50,000 over the next few weeks for legal costs if we are to succeed. Attorneys and other legal costs must be paid. I’ve been told I could probably count on a contribution of $50 from you, even if you have already given.

Uh... who told you that?

I'm including this snippet in case this letter comes a third time. See if the amount needed changes at all.

P.S. A few years ago, there was a group called Uncommon Desires, advocating men having sex with young girls. They were driven out of business the same way we’re going to drive NAMBLA out of business.

Wiki's got nothing on Uncommon Desires. Again, can't research this now. Again, NAMBLA isn't a business. That's how they keep getting away with it.

P.P.S. Apparently NAMBLA now sends money to Charles Jaynes in prison, and he’s teaching other inmates how to seduce and rape children. Please help us shut NAMBLA down!

Another snippet included that I'll have to look into more at another time. Updates to come.

The Winkerbean Controversy

Back when I was in middle school, I was in the band. Yes, the band. Out music teacher had posters on the wall from the comic strip Funky Winkerbean. Back in the day, it was a light comic about a bunch of high school students and their nutty band director. Written and drawn by Tom Batiuk, it wasn't long until the comic turned dramatic (like For Better or For Worse) and started causing controversy. I never really got too much into it as a kid, being much more interested in Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield.

I remember one Sunday in particular where there on the front page of the funny papers was one huge full color panel of a girl attempting suicide.

Batiuk continued to stretch the boundaries of comic strips in 1995, when he created a special series in which Susan Smith, an A-plus student at Westview High, discovers that her love for teacher Les Moore is unrequited. Despondent, Susan attempts suicide. The series generated tons of mail, including this comment from a New Jersey reader: "You did an extraordinary job of leveraging characters and creating a story line so compelling that (while traveling) I'd call ahead to ensure the availability of a newspaper that featured Funky Winkerbean."

It wasn't gory or anything, just a teenage girl laying across her bed with a bottle of pills in her hand. In the background, her parents (or maybe her teacher, I can't remember) wear shocked expressions as they enter the room. I even remember it was on the news, people were so upset.

I don't really blame them on that. I mean, I was 15 at the time and a big fan of comics. In our paper, the Plain Dealer, Funky Winkerbean was the very first comic at the very top of the page. The first one you see. Calvin and Hobbes had ended by this point, and Funky took it's slot in the Sunday funnies. And come on, little kids read the Sunday paper. Who wants to have that conversation with a ten year old?

Anyhow, the comic continues to create controversy. The above comic appeared on 02.23.07. The comic below? The next day.

I'll thank him for not putting it in the Sunday paper this time. Again, people are getting upset. Again, I understand. Another cheap shock from Tom, but the thing about cheap shocks is they work. They do make you stop and think.

In the teen suicide storyline, yes, we were shocked. Parents were forced to have an uncomfortable conversation with their kids, but they talked about the difficult subject of suicide. They might have never had that conversation otherwise and, while I still think it was in bad taste, it did what it was supposed to do. It opened that dialog up. It probably saved lives. I was suicidal as a teen, and while this comic didn't save my life exactly, it's image has always stayed with me.

This comic does the same thing. It makes you ask yourself why you're getting upset by a drawing of a fictional character getting asploded, but you so easily ignore it happening every day in the real world?

Said Tom in a statement:

I wanted to let you know that I’m sorry for any concern, anger or confusion that today’s Funky Winkerbean strip may have caused with your readers. Obviously, any strip removed from the context of it’s (sic) surrounding story is open to misinterpretation, and such appears to be the case here. It was most certainly wasn’t intended to disparage our soldiers in any way.

To the contrary, anyone following the Iraq story arcs in Funky, knows that I’m not only sympathetic to what our soldiers are facing in Iraq, but the focus throughout has been on the sacrifices they make in being separated from family and in the dangers they face in the theater. Treating them with disrespect is not something I would ever do…

He had more integrity as a man, apparently.

LARGO, Florida (AP) -- The City Commission voted to begin the process of firing a top official less than a week after he announced plans to pursue a sex-change operation.

The 5-to-2 vote Tuesday started a three-step process to remove City Manager Steve Stanton from the job he's held for 14 years.

Stanton, 48, confirmed last week that he is a transsexual. With a solid reputation as a forceful and energetic leader, he had hoped to keep his $140,000-a-year job as he underwent the gender reassignment process.

Sad, but not shocking. The happy bit that comes out of this story are the two people who actually voted for him to stay:

"He's done a great job for us," [Mayor Patricia] Gerard said. "He's done what we asked him to do and taken the heat over and over and over again and now we're going to turn on him."

Even more sad is the article written after he first made his announcement. Poor guy sounds so hopeful in the thought that life will be better once he changes his body to suit his identity.

"I want to do this with a sense of dignity and worth," Stanton told the Times. "It's going to take more courage than anything I've ever done."

Largo Mayor Pat Gerard said she supports Stanton."He's a dedicated city manager and puts his job first," she said. "I don't believe he should have to go away and hide out and have to re-emerge. The fact that we do that as a society is pitiful."

Stanton, who is married, said he expects criticism of his decision to go public with his private life, but hopes his example will educate the community about gender reassignment.

"It's not in my nature to flee a challenge," Stanton said. "I can't. I won't."

I think I have a new hero in Largo Mayor Pat Gerard. I found an article (PDF) where the new mayor requested that comments made by citizens at city council meetings be something other than offensive and calling city council members names.

At the beginning of the public comment forum, Gerard asked speakers to "keep your comments on the constructive side, because if you make personal attacks, you are going to be asked to stop."

She's like the moderator in a flame war, how can you not love that? She probably won't get re-elected, but she's doing what's right.

Heroes of the Day? Steve Stanton and Pat Gerard.

Even sadder than all this is the fact that legally there's not much that can be done. The US courts have been historically unsympathetic to transsexual issues.

Idaho, Tennessee, and my home-state Ohio will not change governmental documentation such as drivers licences and birth certificates to reflect gender changes. Other states (New York, Texas, and sigh, Ohio) won't recognise gender reassignments when it comes to marriage. All attempts to include discrimination against transsexuals in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have been shot down. This means it's perfectly legal for Largo to fire Steve just because he's transsexual.

This issue should really get people to think about why there's so little legal protection for the transgendered. There's protection for males and females, but not that difficult to define third category. Does it even need to be defined? What's the definition of male and female, anyhow? Genitals, body parts? If a man is defined by his penis and he somehow loses his penis, is he no longer a man? What is he? Is a female defined by the ability to bare children? What are barren women? Does the definition lie in how we act? Effeminate males are actually women? How about how we dress? I'm wearing pants, does that make me male?

This sort of issue makes it clear we cannot define ourselves as men and woman and whatever in between. We're simply people. Laws should reflect that.