- From the “Blame the Victim” Department – A priest in New York has apologized for saying that children who have been abused by clergy are “seducers”. While his superiors are passing it off as his mind fading after a traumatic accident years ago, my take on it is that it is just evidence that some people just can’t get over the fact that there are truly evil people in the world, and that sometimes they wear a clerical collar. The small percentage of priests, who abuse their position and power to hurt others, splash their colleagues, who live by their vows, with excrement, and it’s a damn shame. But to have one of their number say something like this, and to have it get through the editorial process at an official publication, is shocking. Hopefully the good father is removed from any ministry that is aimed at those who have violated children, because it’s probably hard to do penance for a pretty ugly sin when your confessor looks at you and says “Hey, it wasn’t your fault. That 3rd grader threw himself at you.”.
- From the “Hand in the Cookie Jar” Department – 125 students at Harvard University are facing suspension from the prestigious school after being accused of working together on a take home final exam. I hear from good sources that one of them is going to be the head of Harvard Law Review if found guilty, and then will go into a political career in Chicago.
- From the “We Are Doomed” Department – The latest “must have” for the urban hipster on the go appears to be a brown paper lunch sack. A company in New York is selling a bag made from treated brown paper for $290. The leather version of the sack goes for $360. That’s right, friends and neighbors, for the price of a car payment, you can get yourself a genuine brown paper bag, ready for you to take leftovers to work or hide a 40 ounce bottle of your favorite carbonated beverage in true hobo chic. Heck, if I take just what I have in my pantry downstairs, apply a couple of coats of shellac, and put a couple of grommets on them, I might be able to retire next year.
- From the “Who Domesticated Whom?” Department – An 800 pound pig named John Henry has been kept fat and happy for a year on the leavings from a small restaurant in New Jersey. Is the restaurant fattening him up for their pulled pork special? Is the kitchen staff preparing to serve custom-made bacon to its customers? Nope, they’re donating the food to the pig’s owners so that they can afford to feed him. That’s right, they’re feeding food to potential food with no plans to make it into actual food. I’m all about being kind to animals, but when an animal is made of delicious meat, it will eventually reach a size and age where its tastiness overarches its cuteness. Hopefully the owners and the restaurateurs come to their senses and roast John Henry slowly for about 16 hours, followed by a quick bath in a tangy sauce.
- From the “Justice?” Department – A young girl in Louisville was raped at a party several months ago. The miscreants who violated her also took pictures of the act, presumably so they could either brag about it online or relive it in private. They recently reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, but apparently the victim thinks it’s too lenient a deal. She’s in hot water because she took her frustration to the Internet and posted the names of her attackers on-line. While a judge has recently decided that she won’t be held in contempt of court for doing this, it brings up the question of confidentiality for underage criminals. Does the public have a right to know that rapists live among them, even if the crimes occurred before the rapist’s 18th birthday? While the idea of keeping juvenile records closed is to give them a chance to start anew once they reach adulthood, I’m not such a believer in reform and redemption that I think it’s likely that someone who rapes a girl at 16 will be completely OK to have around my daughter at 18. Not getting into the ethics of the sex offender registry here, but if someone, say a young woman about to go on a date with a young man, does a web search on a name, shouldn’t the fact that the person in question has been convicted of a violent crime such as rape be available?
- From the “Good Idea” Department – The school system in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has decided that cowering under desks and locking hollow core doors isn’t enough in the unlikely event that an armed assailant decides to invade a school. The school has begun teaching faculty at two of its schools to fight back in the event of an active shooter situation. The strategy being taught appears to be to try to evade the shooter, throw things at them to gain time to either run or fight, and if fighting is necessary, to attack as a group. It all sounds good, but it might be more effective if the teachers were allowed to throw copper jacketed lead instead of desks. But far be it from me to criticize this kind of revolutionary thinking. Imagine, a school teaching its students and faculty that their lives are worth fighting over. Let me take this moment to applaud the leadership of the schools in Tuscaloosa for deciding to teach their children that cowering and hoping that the shooter either runs out of bullets or gets bored before he gets to them is not a viable survival technique.
News Roundup
Posted by daddybear71 on September 3, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/09/03/news-roundup-150/
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DaddyBear
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/ September 3, 2012I’m all for publicizing the names of sexual predators of any age, AFTER we decide what is and is not rape.
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